OF  THE 

U  NIVLRSITY 
Of    ILLINOIS 

9773 
C34s 


HISTORICAL  SURVEY 


Young  Folks   Library   of  Choice   Literature 

STORIES 

OF 

ILLINOIS 


BY 


MARA    L.    PRATT,    M.  D.C^ 


ILLUSTRATED 


EDUCATIONAL  PUBLISHING  COMPANY 
BOSTON 

NEW  YORK        CHICAGO        SAN  FRANCISCO 


COPYRIGHTED 
Ky    EDUCATIONAL  PUBLISHING  COMPANY, 

1900. 


'  '. 


• 


54319 


CONTENTS 


THOUSANDS  OF  YEARS  AGO 

EXPLORATION         .... 

THE  COMING  OF  THE  FRENCH    . 

LA  SALLE     ..... 

Foi/r  DEARBORN,   1803      . 

STORY  OF  JOHN  KLNZIE 

TECUMSEH 

FIRST  INDIAN  ATTACK   . 

FORT  WAYNE  AND  FORT  HARRISON 

A  THIRD  CAMPAIGN       ... 

CHICAGO  AGA  N  . 

THE  INDIAN  TREATY     . 

BLACK  HAWK  WAR  .. 

THE  WINNEBAGO  SCARE 

THE  LAST  OF  THE  POTTAWATOMIES 

THE  GREAT  FIRE 

THE  WORLD'S  FAIR  YEAR 


LIBRARY 

0^   THE 
UNIVERSITY  of  ILLIKOIS 


131 

cent 
Illin 


STORIES   OF   ILLINOIS. 


THOUSANDS  OF  YEARS  AUG. 


•  By  thy  rivers  gently 

Illinois,  Illinois. 
o'er  thy  prairies  verdant  growing, 

Illinois,  Illinois, 
Comes  an  echo  on  the  breeze, 
Hustling  through  the  leafy  trees, 
And  its  mellow  tones  are  these, 

Illinois,  Illinois, 
And  its  mellow  tones  are  these, 
Illinois." 

A  <»-rand  old  state  is  Illinois!  A  wonderful  city  is 
Chicago  ! 

'  They  have  grown  up  within  one  century," 
people  proudly  say. 

Yes,  the  part  we  se<-  to-day  has  ^rown  up  within 
one  century. 

But  there  was  glorious  history  here  centuries  and 
centuries  before  white  men  had  ever  set  foot  on 
Illinois  soil, 


&  STORIES    OF   ILLINOIS. 

How  do  we  know?  Oh,  but  there  are  signs  of  it  — 
relics  everywhere. 

We  are  sure  that  our  grand  old  Lake  Michigan 
was  once  very  much  higher  than  it  is  now. 

We  are  sure  that  once  Lakes  Superior,  Huron,  and 
Michigan  —  all  three — poured  their  waters  down 
through  our  own  Illinois  River  to  the  Mississippi, 
then  through  the  Mississippi  to  the  Gulf  of  Mexico. 

It  does  seem  almost  unbelievable.  But  wait! 
Have  you  ever  noticed  those  long,  long  bluffs  on 
either  side  of  the  Illinois  River?  They  are  a  great 
distance  from  the  present  banks  of  the  river,  to  be 
sure  —  a  whole  mile  apart  we  are  told. 

And,  really,  now  that  you  come  to  look  at  them, 
they  do  look  for  all  the  world  as  if  they  were  water 
worn,  do  they  not?  See  the  long  horizontal  lines, 
the  stained  rock,  the  worn  ridges. 

Haven't  you  seen  river  banks,  when  the  water  was 
low  because  of  a  long  dry  season,  that  looked  like 
these  bluffs? 

And  when  you  saw  them,  you  said,  "  How  low  the 


STORIES    OF    ILLINOIS.  '    9 

i 

water  is!  See  the  banks!  See  where  the  river  has 
been !  " 

But  I'm  sure  you  have  already  guessed  the  secret. 
Yes,  those  old  bluffs  —  a  mile  apart  —  are  the  banks 

c 

of  the  Illinois  River  of  long  ago.  Of  course  they 
look  as  if  they  were  water  worn;  for  that  is  just 
what  happened  to  them. 

And  all  this  was  thousands  of  years  ago.  This 
was  when  the  great  phain  of -lakes  poured  its  waters 
into  the  Illinois.  No  wonder  its  banks  were  a  mile 
apart.  Surely  a  river  would  need  to  be  a  mile  wide 
to  take  care  of  such  a  flood  of  water  as  that  must 
have  bfeen. 

But  why  has  the  river  grown  so  narrow?  For  the 
very  same  reason  that  the  little  streams  you  have 
noticed  sink  sometimes  to  w  low- water  mark,"  leav- 
ing their  banks  deserted.  For  we  may  be  sure  all 
rivers  obey  the  same  laws.  It  is  simply  that  for 
some  reason  the  water  supply  has  been  cut  oif  or 
turned  away. 

The  Niagara  River,  always  rapid  because  of  the 


10  STORIES   OF    ILLINOIS. 

slope  of  the  land  in  that  region,  must,  from  its  v.ry 
beginning,  have  been  a  noisy,  rushing  stream;  while 
the  great  western  river  must  at  the  same  time  have 
rolled  on  its  way,  always  slow  and  dignified.  As 
a  natural  consequence  of  these  conditions,  while  the 
slow  western  stream  would  tend  rather  to  build  up 
land,  the  tearing,  rushing  Niagara  would  be  steadily 
and  surely  wearing  it  down. 

Why,  even  within  the  memory  of  man  the  Niagara 
Falls  have  worn  back  in  their  solid  rock  several 
inches!  And  wise  men  say  that  some  time,  if  nothing 
happens  to  change  the  action  of  Niagara,  Lake  Erie 
itself  will  tumble  over  the  falls,  leaving  the  lake- 
ports  of  Cleveland  and  Sandusky  high  and  dry. 

•Then  you  can  see,  I  am  sure,  how  it  was  that  the 
Niagara,  always  digging  deeper  and  deeper,  wearing- 
its  way  backward,  and  driving  the  soil  before  it, 
made  the  descent  more  and  more  marked,  and  so 
filially  began  to  draw^  off  the  water  from  Lakes 
Superior,  Michigan,  and  Huron,  and  to  turn  their 
outflow  eastward. 


STORIES    OF    ILLINOIS.  H 

Then  Lake  Michigan  receded,  and  we  had  —  what? 
Just  this:  miles  and.  miles  of  the  rich  lake  bed  soil 
that  makes  onr  state  of  Illinois  the  grand  agricul- 
tural section  that  it  is,  and  the  Illinois  River 
still  holding  its  course  steadily  seaward,  gathering 
up  the  waters  of  the  many  smaller  rivers,  and  so 
serving  the  state  grandly  for  drainage  and  irrigation. 

Ft  was  long  after  these  marvellous  changes  of 
land  and  river  making  had  taken  place  that  man 
came  to  make  his  home  on  these  rich  prairies. 

Xo  one  knows  who  the  first  people  were,  whence 
they  came,  or  whither  they  went.  But  here  and 
there,  up  and  down  the  country  and  along  the  lakes, 
are  signs  that  in  very  early  times  people  were  here, 
and  that  they  were  people  of  semi-civilization  at 
least. 

On  Lake   Superior  are  mines  which    they  left  - 
copper  mines   in  which  we    know  they    must    have 
worked  for  years  and  years.      Remains  of  machinery 
have  been    found    there;    but   what   the  people    did 
with  the  copper,  why  they  mined  it.  or  why  they  left 


STORIES   OF   ILLINOIS.  13 

the  mines  at  last  —  their  wealth  by  no   means  ex- 
hausted—  that,  no  one  knows. 

After  these  mysterious  people,  came  that  savage 
race  which  we  call  the  American  Indian. 

All  over  the  continent,  within  latitude  of  possible 
dwelling;,  these  red  men  spread  themselves;  and  in 
our  own  state,  chief  among  others,  were  the  Illinois, 
the  Pottawottamies,  the  Ottawas,  the  Chippewas, 
and  the  Ivickapoos.  .That  these  tribes  found  even 
in  their  day  a  commercial  centre  at  Chicago  we 
know;  for  from  no  spot  were  there  so  many  well- 
worn  trails  extending  in  all  directions,  as  from  this 
Chicago  portage,  even  in  the  earliest  times. 

The  savages  came  overland,  and  down  the  river 
also,  to  Chicago  portage;  for  from  there,  then  as 
now,  the  route  out  into  the  lake  and  thence  on  from 
lake  to  lake,  was  clear  and  direct.  It  was  their 
route  by  which  to  carry  to  each  other  either  war  or 
trade.  It  was  the  great  route  which  served  their 
national  interests,  such  as  they  were,  even  as  to-day 
it  is  ours. 


r 


But  while  all  this  was  happening  on  the  western 
prairie,  while  the  savages  were  roaming  up  and 
down  the  Illinois,  wonderful  things  were  taking 
place  on  the  eastern  continent. 

It  is  hard,  to  realize,  in  these  days  of  locomotives 
and  telegraphs,  that  there  ever  was  a  time  when  the 
two  continents  did  not  know  of  each  other's 
existence. 

But  we  all  know  now  there  was  such  a  time;  and 
that  it  was  in  14:92  that  the  first  discovery  was  made. 

14 


STORIES   OF   ILLINOIS.  15 

How  the  news  spread  up  and  down  all  Europe  I 
A  new  land  found!  Out  across  the  waters  of  the 
sea!  Due  west  it  lay!  And  with  people  of  a  kind 
never  before  seen  by  European  eyes ! 

It  was  not  very  long  before  England,  Holland, 
France,  Spain,  Portugal  —  each  bent  upon  posses- 
sion,—  began  to  .send  out  their  explorers  to  learn 
more  about  this  new  country. 

It  was  De  Soto,  we  know,  who  first  touched  upon 
the  Florida  shore ;  Cortez  who  inarched  into  Mexico ; 
Raleigh  who  reached  the  Virginia  shore;  Hudson 
who  pushed  up  the  great  river  of  New  York. 

But  none  of  these  explorers  pushed  on  towards 
the  Northwest.  None  of  them  ever  dreamed  of  our 
marvelous  country  inland. 

For  the  French  this  honor  and  glory  was  reserved. 
In  1534,  Jacques  Cartier,  finding  the  outlet  of  the 
noble  St.  Lawrence,  sailed  up  to  Quebec,  then 
hurried  home  to  tell  of  the  wonderful  -f  wedge- 
shaped "  river  he  had  found  —  a  river  ninety  miles 
wide  at  its  outlet,  and  more  miles  long  than  even 


16  STORIES    OF    ILLINOIS. 

an    imaginative    Frenchman     could     picture    to    his 
mind. 

With  delight  the  French  people  received  news  of 
their  success  in  the  new  world;  and  as  soon  as  their 
own  national  troubles  could  be  adjusted,  Champlain 
.was  sent  out  to  see  what  use  could  be  made  of  the 
river,  and  what  manner  of  country  and  people  were 
to  be  found  along  its  shores. 

Settlements  were  made  at  Montreal  and  Quebec; 
trading  stations  were  pushed  into  the  interior;  and 
the  French  and  Northwest  Indians  became  friendly 
through  their  mutual  trade  interests.  But  the 
French  were  not  content  with  mere  discovery  and 
trade.  They  were  a  zealous,  religious  people;  and 
when  French  monks  came  to  know  that  here  in  the 
new  wrorld,  there  were  thousands  and  thousands  of 
untrained,  untaught  savages,  their  zealous  hearts 
burned  with  the  desire  to  go  among  them,  to  set  up 
the  Cross,  and  teach  them  the  religion  of  the  civilized 
European  countries. 

And    so,  as  we    shall    see,  it  was   through    these 


STORIES    OF    ILLINOIS.  17 

people  first  of  all  that  it  came  about  that  Illinois  was 
explored,  the  Illinois  chief,  Chicago,  counseled  with 
by  white  men,  and  the  Chicago  portage  discovered 
and  located  by  white  men. 


THE  COMING  OF  THE  FRENCH. 

From  the  first  coming  of  the  French  into  the  St. 
Lawrence,  their  ambitions  were  turned  towards  the 
Northwest,  from  which  quarter  most  enticing  stories 
of  fur  trade  possibilities  were  poured  into  their  ears 
by  the  Indians.  But  it  was  only  eighteen  days  after 
the  discovery  of  the  lake  by  Champlain  that  the 
first  battle  for  conquest  took  place. 

Champlain  himself,  in  his  own  quaint  way,  wrote 
the  story  of  that  first  battle :  — 

"  As  we  began  to  approach,"  he  says,  '?  the  abode 
of  the  Iroquois,  we  advanced  only  at  night,  resting 
during  the  day.  .  .  .  . 

f  When  it  was  evening  we  embarked  in  our  canoes 
to  continue  our  course,  and  as  we  advanced  very 
quietly,  we  met  the  foe  on  the  29th  of  July  at  about 
ten  o'clock  in  the  evening,  at  the  extremity  of  a  cape 
that  extends  into  the  lake. 


is 


STORIES   OF   ILLINOIS.  19 

f  The  Iroquois  had  come  to  fight.  We  both  began 
to  utter  bitter  cries,  all  getting  in  readiness  for 
battle.  We  withdrew  out  into  the  water;  the 
Iroquois  went  on  shore.  They  drew  their  canoes 
up  close  together,  and  began  to  fell  trees  with  poor 
axes.  Thus  they  barricaded  themselves  very  well. 

"  Our  forces  also  passed  the  entire  night,  their 
canoes  being  drawn  up  close  to  each  other  and 
fastened  to  poles  that  they  might  not  get  separated, 
and  might  be  in  readiness  to  fight.  We  were  upon 
the  water  within  narrow  range  of  the  barricades. 

f  When  the  Iroquois  were  armed  and  in  array, 
they  dispatched  two  canoes  by  themselves  to  the 
enemy  to  inquire  if  they  wished  to  fight,  to  which 
the  latter  replied  that  they  wished  for  nothing  else ; 
but  that  at  the  present  there  was  not  much  light  and 
that  it  would  be  necessary  to  wait  for  daylight. 
As  soon  as  the  sun  rose  they  would  offer  battle. 

r  To  this  we  agreed.  Meantime  the  entire  night 
was  spent  in  dancing  on  both  sides,  with  endless 
insults  and  other  talk  as  to  how  little  courage  we 


20  STORIES   OF   ILLINOIS. 

had,  how  feeble  a  resistance  we  could  make  against 
their  arms,  and  that  when  day  came  we  should 
realize  our  ruin. 

"  Ours  also  were  not  slow  to  retort,  telling  them 
that  they  would  see  such  an  execution  of  arms  as 
never  before,  together  with  an  abundance  of  such  as 
is  not  unusual  in  the  siege  of  a  town. 

"After  this  singing,  dancing,  and  bandying  of 
words  on  both  sides  to  the  fill,  when  day  came,  my 
companions  and  myself  continued  under  cover  for 
fear  the  enemy  would  see  us. 

?  We  arranged  our  arms  in  the  best  way  possible, 
being,  however,  separated  each  in  one  of  the  canoes 
of  the  savage  Montagnais. 

f?  After  arming  ourselves  in  light  armor,  we  each 
took  an  arquebuse  and  went  on  shore.  I  saw  the 
enemy  go  out  of  their  barricade,  two  hundred  in 
number,  stout  and  rugged  of  appearance.  They 
came  at  a  slow  pace  towards  us,  three  chiefs  at 
their  head.  Our  men  also  advanced  in  the  same 
order,  telling  me  that  those  with  three  large  plumes 


STOJUES   OF    ILLINOIS.  21 

were  the  chiefs,  that  they  had  only  these  three,  and 
that  they  could  be  distinguished  by  the  plumes, 
which  were  much  larger  than  those  of  their  compan- 
ions, and  that  I  should  do  what  I  could  to  kill  them. 

"I  promised  to  do  all  in  my  power,  and  said  I  was 
very  sorry  that  they  could  not  understand  me,  so 
that  I  might  give  order  and  shape  to  their  mode  of 
attacking  their  enemies,  as  then  we  should  without 
doubt  defeat  them  all.  But  since  this  could  not  be 
obviated,  I  should  be  very  glad  to  show  my  courage 
when  we  should  engage  in  fight. 

'r  As  soon  as  we  had  landed  they  began  to  run  for 
some  two  hundred  paces  towards  their  enemies,  who 
stood  firmly,  not  having  as  yet  noticed  my  com- 
panions who  had  gone  into  the  woods  with  some 
savages. 

"Our  men  began  to  call  me  with  loud  cries;  and 
in  order  to  give  me  passage  way  they  opened  in  two 
parts  and  put  me  at  their  head,  where  T  marched 
some  twenty  paces  in  advance  of  the  rest.  When  I 
was  within  thirty  paces  of  the  enemy  they  at  once 


THE  ENTIRE  XIGHT  WAS  SPENT  IN  PANOINT 


211 


STORIES    OF   ILLINOIS.  23 

noticed  me  and,  halting,  gazed  at  me  as  I  did  also  at 
them. 

"When  I  saw  them  make  a  move  to  fire  at  us,  I 
rested  my  musket  against  my  cheek,  and  aimed 
directly  at  one  of  the  chiefs.  With  the  same  shot 
two  fell  to  the  ground ;  one  so  wounded  that  he  died 
soon  after. 

"I  had  loaded  my  musket  with  four  balls.  When 
our  side  saw  the  shot  so  favorable  to  themselves, 
they  raised  so  loud  cries  that  one  could  not  have 
heard  it  thunder. 

fr  Meantime  the  arrows  Hew  on  both  sides.  The 
Iroquois  were  greatly  astonished  that  two  men  had 
been  killed  so  quickly,  although  they  were  equipped 
for  battle  with  armor  made  from  cotton  cloth  with 
wood  which  was  proof  against  arrows.  This  caused 
great  alarm  among  them. 

"As  I  was'  loading  again,  one  of  my  companions 
tired  a  shot  from  the  woods  that  so  astonished  them 
anew  that,  seeing  their  chief  dead,  they  lost  courage 
and  took  to  flight,  abandoning  their  camp  and 


24  STORIES   OF   ILLINOIS 

fort,  and  fleeing  into  the  woods,  whither  I  pursued, 
them,  killing  still  more  of  them  and  taking  ten  or 
twelve  prisoners.  The  remainder  escaped  with  the 
wounded. 

"After  gaining  this  battle  our  men  amused  them- 
selves with  taking  a  quantity  of  corn  and  meal  from 
our  enemies,  also  their  arrows,  which  they  had  left 
behind  that  they  might  run  better.  After  feasting, 
dancing,  and  singing,  we  returned  three  hours  after 
with  our  prisoners." 

Such  reports  as  this,  together  with  most  vivid 
drawings,  at  which  Champlain  was  a  genius,  fired 
the  ambition  of  the  French  people  to  push  on  into 
the  new  country,  which  was  inhabited  by  such 
strange  simple  people  as  these  Indians  seemed  to  be. 

?  These  people  are  heathens,"  said  the  zealous 
monks ;  "  we  must  go  to  them  and  teach  them  the 
true  religion." 

:?  There  are  vast  fields  for  fur  trading  farther 
west,"  said  the  more  secular  minded;  "these  people 
are  hunters  and  can  help  us  to  gather  skins," 


STORIES    OF    ILLINOIS.  25 

And  so  both  priests  and  traders  pushed  on  from 
the  Great  Lakes  into  the  territory  of  the  Northwest. 
It  was  not  very  long  before  the  Falls  of  St.  Mary 
had  been  reached  and  a  brisk  trade  with  the  red 
men  established  at  the  outlet  of  Lake  Superior. 

These  traders  were  kind  and  fair  in  their  dealings 
with  the  Indian,  and  it  was  fortunate  they  were; 
otherwise,  when  eighteen  years  later  good  Fathers 
Marquette,  Hennipin,  and  Joliet  pushed  their  canoes 
down  the  lake  again,  their  welcome  might  not  have 
been  so  cordial. 

But  as  it  wras,  the  red  men,  remembering  the  first 
visit  of  the  French,  received  Marquette  and  Joliet, 
his  companion,  gladly.  They  made  huts  for  them; 
they  brought  them  food  and  bear  skins,  and  made 
them  warm  and  comfortable  the  whole  long  winter. 
'  It  was  in  1661  that  Marquette  had  left  his  home 
in  France  to  come  to  this  new  country ;  for  news  of 
the  new  discoveries  and  the  strange  heathen  people 
had  reached  him  even  in  his  quiet  monastery.  "I 
must  go  to  these  people,"  he  said  at  once;  and  from 


STORIES    OF    ILLINOIS.  27 

that  time  forth  no  other  desire  had  Marquette  in  his 
heart  than  to  reach  these  red  men. 

The  red  men  from  the  beginning  felt  Marquette's 
love  for  them;  for  from  the  very  day  of  his  coming 
among  them  they  lived  together  in  peace,  and  it  was 
not  very  long  before  they  loved  and  trusted  him,  and 
were  eager  to  learn  all  that  he  was  so  eager  to  teach 
them. 

For  three  happy  years  Marquette  dwelt  among 
the  red  men;  and  during  that  time  he  heard  much 
of  a  great  river — the  Father  of  Waters,  the  Indians 
called  it  — somewhat  farther  west.  f  There  are  wild 
men  living  along  the  banks  of  the  river,"  the  Indians 
said;  "they  fight  every  tribe  that  approaches 
them;  and  they  scalp  and  burn  their  captives." 

But  Marquette  longed  to  reach  these  wild  men 
and  to  teach  them  better  ways  of  living.  The  more 
he  heard  of  them  the  more  he  was  convinced  that  he 
ought  to  go  to  them  and  carry  the  gospel  of  loving 
brotherhood.  So  after  a  long  time  Marquette,  with 
Joliet  and  a  few  companions,  set  out  from  their  safe 


28  STORIES   OF   IT/MKOTS. 

home  at  Green  Bay  Mission,  and  journeyed  down 
rivers  and  across  country  to  the  Mississippi.  It 
was  a  wonderful  journey,  and  strange  and  wild 
indeed  were  the  people  they  found  up  and  down  the 
hanks  of  the  Mississippi.  So  wild  and  warlike  were 
they,  indeed,  that  Marquette,  even  when  near  the 
mouth  of  the  Mississippi,  turned  back  rather  than 
have  the  records  of  the  journey  lost.  And  it  was  on 
his  return  that  he  heard  of  the  Illinois  River.  r?It 
is  a  large  river;  and  it  will  make  your  journey 
shorter,"  the  friendly  natives  of  the  upper  Mississippi 
told  the  explorers ;  .and  glad  of  any  route  that  woutd 
shorten  the  journey,  they  paddled  up  the  Illinois, 
and  so  discovered  it  for  the  French. 

?  Truly,"  Joliet  wrote,  "  we  have  seen  nothing 
like  the  fertility  of  this  river  valley.  As  far  as 
we  can  see,  lie  green  fields,  level,  and  rich  in  soil. 
The  forests  are  dense;  wild  birds  and  cattle  roam 
up  and  down  the  prairies;  and  wild  deer  and  water 
birds  rest  upon  the  river  banks." 

At  Green  Bay,  Marquette,  ill  from  long  exposure 


STORIES   OF   ILLINOIS.  29 

to  all  kinds  of  weather,  sank  exhausted.  He  could 
go  no  farther;  but  he  begged  Joliet  to  push  forward 
to  Quebec  and  tell  them  there  what  a  wonderful 
country  they  had  found.  Joliet  did  push  on, 
though  the  way  was  full  of  danger.  At  one  time 
his  canoe  was  overturned  in  the  treacherous  rapids 
of  the  St.  Lawrence  and  many  valuable  records  of 
the  journey  were  lost;  but  Quebec  was  reached  at 
last,  and  the  wonderful  story  told. 

Then  there  was  great  rejoicing  among  the  French 
people.  The  Cathedral  was  thrown  open,  and 
services  of  praise  and  thanksgiving  were  held. 
Bells  were  rung,  flags  were  floated,  and  peals  of 
cannon  rolled  out  across  the  great  St.  Lawrence. 
It  was  nearly  a  year  before  Marqnette  grew  strong 
and  well  enough  to  come  out  from  his  cabin  again; 
but  as  soon  as  he  could  even  walk  about  the  little 
village  he  said  to  his  people,  w  There  are  red  men  on 
the  Illinois  that  need  me  —  and  I  told  them  I  would 
come  back  to  them.  I  would  not  like  to  deceive 
this  simple  people;  so  let  us  go  back  to  them  at 


30  STORIES   OF    ILLINOIS. 

once."  "  But,  good  Father,  you  are  not  yet  able," 
his  friends  pleaded.  fflf  I  am  to  he  well  again,  I 
shall  grow  well  there, —  if  I  am  not  to  be  well  again, 
then  let  me  hasten  that  I  may  reach  there  before  I 
die.  These  Illinois  red  men  must  not  think  we 
would  deceive  them/'  And  so  the  zealous  monk 
set  forth  again.  Two  companions  he  took  with  him; 
and  together  they  dragged  their  canoe  across  the 
country.  Il  was  November  when  at  last  they 
reached  the  lake,  and  the  winds  were  blowing  across 
it  —  cold  and  biting,  then  as  now. 

Already  there  was  ice  upon  the  lake  and  the 
foaming  waters  were  lashing  themselves  against  the 
shores.  Still  the  little  canoe  pushed  on  till  the 
Chicago  River  was  reached.  Here  Marquette  again 
sank  exhausted;  and  the  little  party  was  unable  to 
move  farther.  The  red  men,  seeing  the  white  men, 
went  down  to  the  river;  and  with  the  help  of 
Marquette's  companions,  they  made  for  the  sick  man 
a  rough  little  cabin  and  laid  him  upon  a  bed  of  moss 
and  dried  leaves.  All  winter  long  Marquette  lay 


STORIES    OF   ILLINOIS.  ;!) 

there,  sick  and  suffering.  f?Let  them  come  in,"  he 
would  say  to  his  companions,  when  the  red  men 
would  come  to  the  cabin  to  bring  his  food.  And  so 
when  he  could,  he  talked  with  the  red  men  and  told 
them  why  he  had  come.  He  taught  them  his  own 
religion  and  pleaded  with  them  to  be  kind  and 
loving  Avith  each  other;  to  cease,  from  bloodshed, 
and  to  live  together  in  peace  and  brotherly  love. 

How  these  simple  red  men  loved  the  good 
Marquette!  How  they  watched  over  him  and  cared 
for  him!  'They  brought  me  back  to  life,"  Mar- 
quette used  to  say.  And,  indeed,  it  would  seem  as 
if  they  did;  for  in  the  spring  time  the  dying  man 
rallied,  and  again  the  little  party  pushed  on  towards 
those  Indian  camps  which  Marquette  had  visited  as 
he  came  up  the  Illinois. 

At  the  Kankekee  dwelt  a  tribe  of  Indians,  three 
thousand  strong;  and  it  was  to  this  camp  that 
Marquette  and  his  companions  came.  The  red  men 
had  not  forgotten  him;  but  like  trustful  children  hac( 
watched  and  waited  all  winter  long.  And  when 


.32  STORIES   OF   ILLINOIS. 

now  he  had  come,  they  fell  at  his  feet,  so  great  was 
their  joy  to  see  him.  They  brought  him  food  and 
prepared  a  cabin  for  him.  They  seated  themselves 
in  a  great  circle  around  him  and  listened  to  his 
words  of  love  and  wisdom. 

For  a  few  months  Marquette  lived  here  with  the 
red  men,  teaching  them.  But  as  the  summer  died 
away,  again  his  strength  failed.  Even  the  red  men 
could  see  the  pale-face  had  not  long  to  live;  and  so 
when  he  asked  them  to  take  him  back  to  Green  Bay 
to  die,  they  w^ent  to  work  to  make  his  canoe  ready, 
They  lined  it  with  soft  skins  and  spread  a  canopy 
over  it;  then,  silent  and  sad,  the  chiefs  went  with 
him  down  the  river,  back  to  the  lake,  and  on 
towards  Green  Bay.  It  was  a  very  slow  journey; 
for  often  Marquette  was  forced  to  rest  for  days  upon 
the  shore. 

Then  the  faithful  red  men  would  build  great  fires 
for  warmth,  and  wrapping  the  sick  man  in  skins  and 
blankets,  would  lay  him  upon  a  bed  of  leaves  and 
moss  before  the  fires,  that  he  might  grow  warm  and 


STORIES   OF   ILLINOIS.  35 

gather  strength.  So  they  carried  him  on  until 
Green  Bay  at  last  was  reached.  Then  the  faithful 
Indians  left  him  with  his  companions;  and,  still 
silent  and  sad,  turned  back  to  their  homes. 

There  was  but  a  short  distance  farther  to  go;  but 
Marquette's  life  was  fading  fast.  >f  I  am  afraid  we 
shall  not  reach  the  Mission,"  he  said;  ff  I  wish  it 
might  have  been."  One  evening,  just  as  the  sun 
was  sinking  below  the  water's  edge,  Marquette's 
companions  lifted  him  once  more,  and  for  the  last- 
time,  from  the  canoe.  For  that  night  Marquette 
died;  and  they  buried  him  upon  the  sunny  hillside, 
wrapped  close  in  his  priestly  robes,  as  he  had  asked 
them  to  bury  him;  and  over  his  grave  they  read  the 
burial  service  and  tolled  the  Mission  bell  Marquette 
carried  always  with  him. 

frHe  is  dead,"  the  companions  said,  when  they 
reached  the  Mission ;  rf  and  we  buried  him  upon  the 
hillside." 

"Let  us  go  and  bring  him  home,"  the  red  men 
said  simply.  And  at  once  thirty  canoes  were  made 


34  STORIES    OF    ILLINOIS. 

ready  to  go  back  down  the  lake  to  the  burial 
place.  And  so  the  body  of  Marquette  was  brought 
to  the  Green  Bay  Mission  and  was  buried  again, 
this  time  beneath  the  little  chapel  which  he  himself 
had  built. 


At  the  time  the  news  of  Marquette's  great 
discovery  was  brought  to  Quebec,  there  was  in 
Canada  an  enthusiastic,  energetic  young  man  named 
La  Salle,  who  had  come  over  from  France  fired  with 
ambition  to  explore  this  new  country  across  the 
ocean. 

tfLet  us  establish  trading  posts  up  and  down  this 
great  river,"  La  Salle  said  at  once,  when  he  heard 
the  story  Joliet  had  to  fell. 

"It  might  be  well,"  said  the  cautious  Governor- 
General.  "  Will  you  go  back  to  France,  report  to 
the  King,  and  ask  for  assistance  to  carry  out  these 
plant*?" 


36  STORIES    OF    ILLINOIS. 

'PI  will,"  was  La  Salle's  hearty  answer;  and  away 
he  went  to  France  to  tell  his  story. 

And  he  must  have  told  it  well ;  for  the  King  not 
only  gave  him  the  assistance  he  asked,  but  gave  him 
permission  to  rebuild  Fort  Frontenac,  and  also  hon- 
ored him  with  the  title,  Chevalier. 

And  so  Chevalier  Robert  La  Salle  came  back  to 
Canada.  He  rebuilt  the  fort,  held  it  for  two  years, 
then  went  again  to  France.  On  this  second  visit, 
he  was  received  with  honor;  more  titles  were 
showered  upon  him,  and  more  extended  privileges 
in  the  new  country  were  given  him. 

Again  he  came  to  Canada,  bringing  with  him  his 
faithful  Tonti,  and  at  once  set  to  work  building  a 
fort  above  the  falls  of  Niagara,  which  falls  he  him- 
self had  discovered  not  very  long  before.  Not  one 
hour  did  the  energetic  La  Salle  waste;  for  before  he 
had  been  a  week  at  work  on  the  foil,  he  had  begun 
the  building  of  a  vessel  that  should  carry  him  west- 
ward, up  the  lakes  toward  the  region  of  the  Illinois. 

Now  the  coat  of  arms  of  the  La  Salle   family  in 


STOKIES   OF    ILLINOIS.  ;}7 

Prance  was  a  griffin;  and  for  this  reason  La  Salle 
named  his  new  boat  The  Griffin.  In  due  time  it 
was  sailing  westward,  bearing  upon  its  deck  the 
daring  Chevalier,  his  faithful  Tonti  and  many  other 
brave  companions. 

Very  slowly  and  carefully  they  made  their  way 
along  the  lakes;  for  no  one  knew  their  depths  and 
shallows,  since  never  before  had  their  waters  been 
stirred  by  other  vessels  than  the  tiny  canoes  of  the 
red  men.  By  and  by  these  brave  navigators  came 
upon  an  island.  Red  men  lived  there;  and  when 
they  saw  the  white  men  coming,  they  ran  down  to 
the  shore  to  welcome  them.  "  Marquette!  Mar- 
quette !  "  they  shouted ;  and  from  this  La  Salle  knew 
that  Marquette  must  some  time  have  visited  the 
island. 

"  See  to  it,"  La  Salle  said  to  his  companions,  "  that 
we  do  not  disappoint  these  simple  people.  Do  them 
no  harm.  Be  kind  to  them  even  as  Marquette  has 
been."  So  the  boat  drew  near  and  anchored;  small 
boats  were  lowered,  and  the  Frenchmen  went  ashore. 


STATUE  OF  LA   S.VLLE,  ERECTED  IX  LINCOLN  PARK,   CHICAGO. 


STORIES   OF   ILLINOIS.  39 

The  natives  received  them  warmly,  bringing  food 
and  furs  for  them.  The  Frenchmen,  too,  were 
cordial  and  generous.  They  heaped  presents  upon 
the  red  men  —  knives  and  beads  and  colored  cloths, 
such  as  the  red  men  loved. 

Then  trade  was  opened  with  these  red  men,  and 
the  boat  was  loaded  with  furs  and  sent  back  to  the 
fort,  while  La  Salle  and  a  few  companions  went  on 
in  canoes  farther  up  the  lakes. 

"Unload  the  cargo  and  come  back  to  overtake 
us,"  had  been  La  Salle's  command  when  the  boat 
left  the  island  and  turned  back. 

But  now  whole  weeks  had  gone  by.  Xo  boat  had 
returned.  Winter  was  coming  on,  and  already  La 
Salle  and  his  men  had  tasted  the  bitterness  of  the 
winter  winds  upon  the  lakes.  Once,  driven  upon 
the  shore  by  the  storms,  the  men  had  lived  four 
days  without  food;  and  already  many  of  them  were 
rebellious.  How  they  watched  the  east  for  the  coin- 
ing of  The  Griffin — these  suifering,  starving  heroes! 

But  alas!   The  Griffin  did  not  come.     Xor  did  it 


40  STORIES   OF   ILLINOIS. 

ever  come;  and  to  this  day  no  trace  of  it  has  ever- 
been  found.  It  never  reached  the  fort  and  no  man 
ever  knew  its  fate. 

?  We  must  stay  here,"  said  La  Salle,  "until  spring 
opens;"  and  so  the  men  set  to  work  to  build  a  fort, 
and  the  little  band  crept  within  its  shelter  —  now 
their  only  hope.  But  La  Salle  himself  was  not  con- 
tent to  waste  even  the  winter  time;  so  with  a  few 
faithful  ones  he  pushed  on  in  his  canoe  to  Lake 
Peoria.  w  Here,"  La  Salle  said,  "  we  saw  an  excel- 
lent site  for  a  trading  post ;  and  though  we  had  little 
heart  to  begin,  we  set  to  work  to  build  another  fort 
for  shelter;  and  we  named-it  Fort  Crevecceur,  which 
means  broken-hearted,  for  indeed  we  were  broken- 
hearted, one  and  all." 

But  no  sooner  had  this  fort  been  completed  and 
the  men  safely  garrisoned,  than  La  Salle,  with  only 
five  men,  turned  back,  meaning  to  make  his  way 
to  Fort  Frontenac  for  food  and  supplies. 

"I  shall  build  another  vessel,"  this  unflinching 
hero  said  to  his  men,  "and  come  back  to  you. 


STORIES   OF    ILLINOIS.  41 

While  I  am  gone,  go  on  westward.  Search  for  the 
great  river.  Should  you  find  it,  we  will  build  a 
great  vessel  and  follow  it  to  its  outlet.  Who  knows 
but  it  may  prove  to  be  the  Northwest  Passage!  " 

And  so  La  Salle  left  his  men  and  turned  back. 
Xow,  among  La  Salle's  companions  was  good  Father 
Hennepin,  one  of  those  who  had  accompanied  Mar- 
quette  on  his  voyage  up  and  down  the  Mississippi; 
and  it  was  to  Father  Hennepiivs  care  and  wisdom 
that  La  Salle  entrusted  the  expedition  in  search  of 
the  Northwest  Passage. 

''  I  shall  know  that  all  that  can  be  done  will  be 
done,"  were  La  Salle's  parting  words;  "and  when 
by  and  by  I  shall  return  with  more  men  and 
supplies,  let  me  be  greeted  with  news  of  a  great 
discovery.  Such  news  would  indeed  pay  me  a 
thousand  times  over  for  all  the  suffering  and  disap- 
pointments of  the  past." 

So  La  Salle  set  out;  and  hardly  was  he  out  of 
sight  before  the  faithful  Father  Hennepin  began 
his  preparations  for  pushing  westward.  Only  two 


42  STORIES    OF   I 

companions  did  he  take  with  him;  but  their  canoe 
was  well  stored,  their  hearts  were  brave,  and  the  sun 
shone  down  brightly  upon  them  the  morning  they 
set  sail,  as  if  to  give  them  God-speed. 

They  had  sailed  but  a  little  way  when  they  met 
canoes  filled  with  Illinois  Indians.  The  white  men 
were  received  by  these  most  cordially,  and  for  a  few 
miles  the  canoes  glided  on,  side  by  side. 

"  Oh,  good  Father,"  begged  the  friendly  chiefs,  do 
not  go  on  into  these  unknown  waters.  Dread 
dangers  await  you  —  dangers  such  as  white  men 
know  not  of.  There  are  terrible  birds,  with  poison- 
ous claws,  which  watch  to  swoop  down  upon  the 
canoes  of  the  children  of  the  Great  Spirit.  There 
are  rabbits  with  talons  like  eagles;  and  there  are 
winged  buffaloes  waiting  to  fly  with  their  prey 
across  the  plains;  and  in  the  water,  too,  there  are 
terrible  creatures  with  sharp  teeth  and  tusks  that 
will  shatter  the  sides  of  the  canoes.  Whirlpools, 
too,  there  are,  and  rapids,  and  on  the  banks  live 
tribes  who  kill  and  eat  each  other.  Pray  do  not  go! 


STORIES   OF   ILLINOIS.  43 

Stay  here  and  dwell  in  our  wigwams  and  eat  of  our 


venison.'1 


But  Father  Hennepin  had  heard  all  this  before; 
he  had  heard  it  when,  with  Marquette,  he  had  set 
forth  down  the  Mississippi;  and  although  his  heart 
beat  warmly  towards  the  friendly  Illinois,  he  knew 
full  \vell  how  mistaken  they  were.  Other  dangers 
awaited  him  —  that  he  knew  —  but  not  these.  And 
so,  bidding  his  dusky  advisers  good-bye,  he  pushed 
on  with  his  men,  in  search  of  the  Northwest 
Passage. 

In  due  time  they  reached  the  Mississippi  —  and 
just  in  time  to  witness  the  breaking  up  of  the  vast 
sheets  of  ice  on  the  river.  Down  they  came  —  huge 
blocks  —  crushing  and  grinding,  heaping  themselves 
upon  each  other,  sliding  and  falling.  It  was  a 
wonderful  sight.  f  We  stood,"  Father  Hennepin 
wrote,  pf  awestruck  before  the  mighty  mass.  Xor 
could  I  have  believed  such  sheets  of  ice  could  have 
formed  except  in  the  frozen  waters  of  a  northern 


sea." 


44  STORIES    ()F    ILLINOIS. 

Around  the  tree-covered  islands  at  the  mouth  of 
the  Illinois  River,  were  drifted  masses  of  wood  and 
moss  and  trunks  of  trees  —  heaps  on  heaps  — 
brought  down  by  the  mighty  current. 

Here  the  brave  little  band  waited  until  the  river 
was  clear;  then  they  set  out  up  the  Mississippi. 

For  several  days  the  little  boats  passed  on 
unmolested.  But  one  day  there  came  gliding 
around  a  sudden  bend  in  the  river  a  tribe  of  Indiars 
in  war  paint  and  feathers.  Thirty  canoes  full  there 
were;  and  at  sight  of  the  three  lone  Frenchmen, 
they  bore  down  upon  them,  yelling  and  howling  and 
waving  their  tomahawks. 

Escape  was  impossible.  Resistance  was  worse 
than  useless.  Father  Hennepin  rose  in  his  canoe 
and  extended  the  calumet.  That  was  the  only 
hope;  but  the  calumet  was  tossed  aside,  the  canoe 
dragged  ashore,  its  contents  overhauled  by  the  red 
men,  the  gifts  of  beads  and  bright  colored  cloth 
confiscated,  and  Father  Hennepin  and  his  compan- 
ions were  led  away  into  captivity. 


STORIES    OF    ILLINOIS.  45 

For  several  days  the  chiefs  of  the  tribes  coun- 
selled whether  to  tomahawk,  burn,  or  shoot  their 
captives;  and  the  three  white  men  knew  full  well 
their  peril.  Still  they  flinched  not.  Indeed,  Father 
Hennepin,  to  convince  his  captors  of  his  bravery, 
himself  placed  a  tomahawk  in  the  hands  of  the 
chief,  and  bowed  his  head  before  it. 

Most  pleasing  was  this  to  the  Chiefs  crude  idea 
of  bravery;  then,  too,  if  a  captive  was  so  willing  to 
die,  there  was  far  less  pleasure  and  excitement  in 
killing  him;  at  least  so  the  red  men  may  have 
reasoned;  for  in  a  few  days  the  Chief  smoked  the 
pipe  of  peace  with  his  captives,  and  then,  together, 
the  white  men  and  the  red  men  started  up  the  river. 

To  the  white  men  it  was  a  wonderful  journey. 
Some  days  the  warriors  were  kind  to  their  captives, 
some  days  cruel.  Some  days  they  would  feed  them 
and  pet  them  like  favored  children;  some  days  they 
would  starve  and  neglect  them. 

After  a  journey  of  many  days,  the  whole  tribe 
landed  at  a  dreary  little  village  encampment,  where 


46  STORIES   OF   ILLINOIS. 

they  left  their  canoes  and  proceeded  on  foot  still 
farther  north. 

The  three  Frenchmen  had  already  been  appor- 
tioned, one  to  each  of  the  three  chiefs;  and  now, 
loaded  down  with  baggage,  they  were  driven  on 
like  cattle  before  the  tribe.  Over  hill  and  through 
forest,  across  rivers  and  into  swamps,  the  tribe 
pressed  on  through  the  heavy  snows,  into  the  teeth 
of  the  biting  wind. 

r  Often,"  so  Father  Hennepin  wrote,  ''  1  was  so 
benumbed  with  cold  that  I  could  not  push  my  way; 
and  so  exhausted  that  I  could  not  stand.  At  one 
time  I  fell  beside  the  river  bank,  hoping  to  die  there 
rather  than  to  struggle  on.  But  even  this  was  not 
allowed  me.  One  Indian  came  towards  me,  frowned 
down  upon  me,  then  quietly  and  without  a  word, 
set  the  grass  on  all  sides  of  me  on  fire.  f  Now,' 
said  the  savage,  '  follow  us  or  burn/ 

'f  It  seemed  an  endless  journey ;  but  at  last  we 
reached  the  home  of  our  captors.  It  was  not  a 
successful  returning  of  these  warriors,  for  they 


STORIES   OF   ILLINOIS.  47 

brought  no  scalps,  no  prisoners  —  only  three  help- 
less canoe-men  who  had  never  harmed  them,  never 
resisted  them,  and  who  had  come  into  their  country 
loaded  with  presents,  and  intending  nothing  but  to 
explore  the  rivers  and  peacefully  return  to  their  own 
country. 

f  The  Indians  seemed  to  feel  that  tl  ey  had  little 
to  boast  of;  and  therefore  determined  to  make  as 
grand  a  parade  of  us  as  could  be  made.  They 
dressed  us  in  feathers  and  war  paints,  placed  gourds 
in  our  hands,  and  bade  us  dance  and  sing. 

ffAnd  as  we  neared  the  village,  though  they 
could  not  make  their  ?  scalp-haloo ',  nor  give  the 
yell  that  would  indicate  to  the  women  in  the  village 
that  stakes  should  be  built  and  fires  made  ready, 
they  yelled  and  shouted,  making  the  forests  and  the 
hills  to  echo  and  re-echo  with  their  brutal  whoops. 

•f  And  now,  alas !  came  a  sorrow,  harder  for  us  to 
bear  than  either  cold  or  starvation.  On  reaching 
the  village,  our  band  of  warriors  broke  up,  and  the 
chiefs  with  their  followers  went  away,  each  to  his 


STORIES   OF   ILLINOIS.  49 

own  village;  then  it  was  we  learned  that  henceforth 
we  were  to  be  separated,  each  one  of  us  to  be 
carried  away  to  the  village  of  the  chief  to  whom  we 
had  been  given. 

'There  was  no  escape;  hardly  were  we  permitted 
to  say  farewell  to  each  other;  but  were  hurried  off 
across  marshes,  over  hills,  and  through  forests,  to 
our  various  villages,  each  several  miles  from  the 
others. 

"  So,  for  man}'  long  months  I  dwelt  here  in  this 
little  village,  often  wondering  if  ever  a  way  should 
be  made  for  me  to  escape;  or,  if  it  was  indeed  to  be 
my  lot  to  live  out  my  days  among  these  people.  ' 

rf  One  day  a  messenger  came  from  the  other  vil- 
lages. We  were  bidden  to  embark  and  sail  farther 
south  in  search  of  newer  hunting  grounds.  Gladly 
did  I  prepare  for  this  departure,  hoping  that  at  last 
we  should  be  allowed  to  return  to  our  own  people. 

"  Our  journey  down  the  river  was  indeed  hard  to 
bear.  I,  with  one  of  my  former  companions,  was 
often  in  our  canoe  alone;  yet  we  were  forced  on  to 


50  STORIES   OF   ILLINOIS. 

keep  pace  with  the  rapidly  moving  canoes  of  the 
Indians,  with  their  ten  and  twelve  paddles  for  each 
canoe. 

>f  I  hardly  know  how  it  came  about;  but  my  chief 
had  grown  to  believe  whatever  I  promised  him. 
Therefore  one  day  I  said  to  him,  f  Good  friend,  yon 
have  been  very  kind  to  me.  I  have  been  happy  and 
contented  among  you  for  all  these  months.  Now  I 
wish  to  go  back  to  my  country  with  these  five 
Frenchmen.  I  will  come  back  again.  And  I  will 
come  with  rich  presents  for  your  tribe.' 

"I  dared  hardly  hope  for  the  ready  permission 
the  chief  gave  to  my  request.  It  was,  I  fear,  the 
hope  of  presents  rather  than  any  better  motive  that 
induced  him  to  allow  me  to  depart.  But,  be  that  as 
it  might,  I  was  once  more  a  free  man;  and  most  joy- 
ously did  I  start  forth  with  my  companions  down 
the  Mississippi  to  the  Wisconsin,  thence  across  the 
country,  down  the  lakes  to  Montreal. 

'?  The  governor,  who  had  believed  me  long  since 
dead,  stood  thunderstruck.  He  took  me  with  him  to 


STORIES   OF   ILLINOIS.  51 

his  own  home;  and  their  I  gave  him  a  full  account 
of  my  adventures,  and  proved  to  him  the  advantages 
of  our  discoveries." 

But  all  this  time,  what  was  happening  at  Fort 
Crevecoeur?  La  Salle  had  left  there,  with  the 
other  men,  his  own  faithful  Tonti,  and  also  two 
missionaries  who  should  work  among  the  Indians 
thereabout. 

For  some  time  all  went  well.  The  Indians 
seemed  friendly,  there  was  food  in  plenty,  and  the 
men  were  well  sheltered.  But  one  day  an  Indian 
lad  came  running  into  the  village  round  about  the 
fort,  yelling  and  jumping  high  in  the  air.  '  The 
Frenchmen  are  upon  us!  The  Iroquois!  La 
Salle!" 

And,  impulsive,  excitable  creatures  as  they  were, 
they  were  in  a  moment  up  and  in  arms.  They 
yelled  and  howled  and  flourished  their  tomahawks. 
"r  On  to  the  fort!  "  they  cried. 

The  white  men  heard  the  uproar,  and  all  too  soon 
learned  the  occasion.  Without  a  word,  Tonti 


52  STORIES    OF    ILLINOIS. 

rushed  out  from  the  fort  into  the  midst  of  the 
excited  throng. 

'  The  enemy!  The  enemy!  "  he  shouted,  "  Where 
are  they?  tell  us!  we  will  join  you!  " 

The  Indians  were  struck  dumb.  '  You  join  us? 
Why,  but  you  are  the  enemy!  "  they,  cried.  ''You 
-led  by  La  Salie!  " 

?  We !  La  Salle !  "  Tonti  cried,  pretending  amaze- 
ment, too ;  "  La  Salle  is  hundreds  of  miles  away !  " 

But  meantime  the  real  enemy  was  close  at  hand. 
The  hostile  tribe  was  encamped  only  a  short  distance 
from  the  fort.  w  I  will  go  to  them,"  Tonti  said. 

It  was  a  perilous  thing  to  do;  for  the  young 
warriors  of  the  tribe  were  blood-thirsty,  and  were 
bent  on  massacre.  No  peace  was  possible;  and 
Tonti  and  his  men  were  soon  glad  to  escape  up  the 
river,  leaving  the  fort  to  the  mercy  of  the  savage 
foe.  It  was  a  terrible  journey  that  followed.  The 
wind  was  biting  cold,  the  way  unknown;  and  to 
complete  the  danger  and  discomfort,  the  little  canoe 
failed  them  in  their  hour  of  need,  so  that  they  were 


STORIES    OF    ILLINOIS.  53 

forced  to  leave  it  and  make  their  way  as  best  they 
could  along  the  bank,  carrying  the  little  boat  with 
them  till  they  should  reach  a  place  where  they 
dared  stop  to  repair  it. 

For  fourteen  long  days  the  little  band  pushed  on 
through  the  wilderness,  often  losing  their  way  and 
retracing  it  for  miles,  hungry,  discouraged,  and 
exhausted. 

At  last  the  little  mission  at  Green  Bay  was 
reached,  and  the  worn-out  men  sank  down,  glad 
indeed  once  more  to  feel  the  warmth  of  fire  and 
taste  the  savor  of  food.  For  weeks  they  rested 
here,  gathering  up  their  strength  and  courage,  that 
they  might  be  ready  again  to  set  out  when  La  Salle 
should  bid  them. 

With  the  first  signs  of  spring  they  pushed  on 
towards  Fort  Mackinaw.  La  Salle  was  there;  but  he 
had  already  made  his  way  to  Fort  Crevecoeur,  and 
was  now  returning,  sad  at  heart;  for  he  knew  not 
what  had  become  of  the  brave  men  he  had  left  there. 

Tonti  told  his  sad   story  of  their   winter   to   La 


54  STORIES    OF    ILLINOIS. 

Salle;  and  La  Salle  told  the  story  of  his  own  weary 
journeying  back  and  forth  from  Frontenac.  Still 
neither  La  Salle  nor  his  men  seemed  to  have  lost 
heart ;  and  when  La  Salle  stretching  his  right  hand 
westward  cried,  "On!  on  to  the  Mississippi!  "  every 
man  answered  heartily  and  with  a  great  shout  of 
joy.  "On!  on  to  the  Mississippi!" 

That  La  Salle  and  his  men  did  push  on  down  the 
Father  of  Waters,  we  all  know.  And  a  grand  suc- 
cess the  voyage  proved  to  be ;  for  La  Salle  planted 
the  French  banner,  and  buried  a  leaden  plate,  upon 
which  were  engraved  these  words  : 

rf  Louis  the  Great  Reigns.  Robert,  Cavalier, 
with  Lord  Tonti,  Ambassador,  Lenobia  Membrc, 
Ecclesiastic,  and  twenty  Frenchmen  first  navigated 
this  river  from  the  country  of  the  Illinois  and  passed 
through  this  mouth  on  the  9th  of  April,  1682." 

From  this  time  on,  the  great  tract  of  land  up  and 
down  the  Mississippi  was  the  noble  property  of  the 
French.  As  Parkman  has  so  strongly  put  it:  "On 
that  day  the  realm  of  France  received  a  splendid 


STORIES   OF  ILLINOIS.  55 

acquisition.  The  fertile  plains  of  Texas;  the  vast 
basin  of  the  Mississippi  from  its  frozen  northern 
springs  to  the  sultry  borders  of  the  gulf  —  from  the 
woody  ridges  of  the  Alleghanies  to  the  bare  peaks 
of  the  Rocky  Mountains  —  a  region  of  savannahs 
and  forests,  sun  cracked  deserts  and  grassy  prairies, 
watered  by  a  thousand  rivers,  ranged  by  a  thousand 
warlike  tribes,  passed  beneath  the  sceptre  of  the 
Sultan  of  Versailles." 

Such,  and  a  great  deal  more  that  we  cannot  here 

i 

take  time  to  touch  upon,  were  the  sufferings  and  the 
heroism  that  led  to  a  knowledge  of  the  rivers  and 
the  lands  of  this  unknown  country,  of  which  our 
Illinois  is  now  so  nearly  the  centre.  Such  were  the 
first  means  through  which  it  came  about  in  time  that 
trading  posts  werje  established  up  and  down  the 
rivers;  that  both  the  English  and  the  French  began 
to  look  with  deep  commercial  interest  upon  the 
section;  and  that  in  time  the  Chicago  Portage,  as 
we  shall  learn  later,  became  the  one  central  point  of 
eastern  interest. 


"  O,  city  by  the  inland  sea, 

Chicago, 
Grand  monument  of  industry, 

Chicago, 

Gath'ring  gladly  from  all  lands, 
For  the  love  of  thee, 
Chicago." 

"  O,  city  by  the  inland  sea. 
Columbia  has  chosen  thee 
To  proudly  say,  "  I  WILL," 
And  all  prophecy  fulfill, 
Mighty  city  by  the  inland  sea." 

Did  you  ever  see  the  Rush  Street  Bridge  in 
Chicago  at  the  foot  of  Wabash  Avenue?  There  is 
nothing  remarkable  about  it,  you  will  say.  No; 
there  are  other  bridges  quite  as  good  in  and  about 
Chicago. 

And  still,  there  was  a  time,  only  a  few  years  ago, 
when  every  stranger  coming  to  the  city  paid  a  visit 


STORIES   OF    ILLINOIS.  57 

to  the  Rush  Street  Bridge.  He  would  not  be  eon- 
tent  to  leave  Chicago  until  he  had  visited  that 
neighborhood. 

Sometimes  strangers  go  there  now.  There  seems 
little  to  see;  still  the  visitors  look  and  look. 

And  this  is  what  they  say:  f*  So  this  is  Chicago's 
oldest  historical  site!'-  Or,  r?  So  this  is  where 
Chicago  began!  Well,  well,  well!" 

There  is  one  old  Chicagoan  who  still  lives  not 
very  far  from  this  bridge.  He  knew  Chicago  when 
it  was  only  a  town;  and  he  is  very  proud  of  the 
great  city. 

''You  see,"  he  says,  "the  city  and  I  grew  up 
together.  That  makes  me  love  it. 

"  Right  here,  where  this  south  abutment  of  the 
bridge  now  is,  the  old  light-house  keeper's  little 
hoirip  ^tood.-  Just  beyond,  was  the  tall,  white  light- 
h(  rf  *e  tower.  And  just  across  a  little  road  from 
th.it  stood  the  old  Fort." 

Old  Fort  Dearborn!  Yes,  that  is  why  strangers 
even  now  go  down  to  the  Rush  Street  Bridge;  for 


58  STORIES   OF   ILLINOIS. 

that  spot  has  had  a  noble  history;  and  there  was  a 
time  when  no  fort  in  the  land  meant  so  much  to  the 
country  as  did  old  Fort  Dearborn. 

It  is  hard  to  believe,  as  we  stand  on  the  Rush 
Street  Bridge  to-day,  that  only  a  few  years  ago 
there  were  prairies  and  trees  and  green  fields  as  far 
as  the  eye  could  see;  that  the  air  was  clear  and 
sweet,  and  that  the  only  smoke  was  that  from  the 
Indian  camps,  scattered  here  and  there  up  and  down 
the  prairie.  But  so  it  was;  and  so  it  might  be  now 
—  who  knows? — had  it  not  been  for  the  Chicago 
River.  Flowing  as  it  does  into  the  lake,  the  site 
was  early  discovered  and  appreciated  even  by  the 
Indians  themselves.  The  French  and  the  English 
fur  traders,  too,  were  quick  to  see  the  convenience 
and  usefulness  of  the  river;  so  that  from  the  very 
beginning  the  Chicago  Portage  was  important. 
And  when,  later,  the  Mississippi  valley  became  »out 
property  of  our  people,  the  government,  recognizn. 
the  value  of  this  portage,  sent  men  to  build  a  fort 
there.  ""  For,"  said  they,  "  the  Chicago  Portage  will 


STORIES   OF   ILLINOIS.  59 

some  time,  as  our  country  grows  westward,  come  to 
be  a  commercial  centre.''. 

No  Chicago  boy  or  girl  needs  now  to  be  told  that 
these  early  prophecies  were  wise  ones.  We  only 
wonder  if  these  early  prophets  knew  how  wise  they 
were. 

At  the  beginning  of  the  nineteenth  century  there 
were  no  white  people  living  farther  west  than 
Detroit;  but  the  government  had  bought  from  the 
Indians  a  piece  of  land  six  miles  long  on  the  western 
shore  of  the  lake,  near  its  southern  end;  and  it  was 
there  the  fort  was  to  be  built. 

There  were  Indians  in  the  forest  round  about ; 
and  one  day  these  red  men  were  surprised  to  see  a 
great  white  schooner  coming  down  the  lake.  They 
all  ran  down  to  the  shore,  staring  in  grim  wonder. 

'"  Big  bird!  "  said  one  Indian. 

"Canoe  with  wings,"  grunted  another;  and  not 
until  the  men  began  to  land  with  guns  and  the  boats 
had  been  loaded  with  the  schooner's  cargo,  did  the 
red  men  creep  back  to  their  own  camps.  Then  the 


60  STORIES    OF    ILLINOIS. 

schooner  sailed  back  to  Detroit,  and  the  history  of 
Chicago  had  began. 

The  little  band  of  men  set  at  once  to  work.  First, 
a  block-house  must  be  built,  and  the  grounds  must 
be  enclosed  by  palisades  high  and  strong. 

So  they  chose  a  site  for  the  fort,  and  set  to  work 
hauling  the  logs  and  driving  the  stakes. 

They  had  neither  horses  nor  cattle  to  help  them; 
had  they,  the  hauling  of  logs  would  have  been  quite 
easy  and  they  might  have  built  their  fort  with 
greater  speed. 

But  when  the  men  had  to  w  play  horse "  as  the 
children  say,  fasten  the  ropes  around  their  own 
waists,  and  drag  the  logs  themselves,  it  was  not 
quite  so  easy  building  forts  as  we  might  think  The 
men  were  brave  and  plucky,  however,  and  often 
their  shouts  and  laughter  rang  out  over  the  lake, 
as  they  dragged  the  big  logs  along.  All  the 
summer  and  all  the  fall  they  worked,  day  in  and  day 
out,  never  forgetting,  day  or  night,  to  keep  a  watch 
upon  the  savages  lurking  in  the  forests  round  about; 


STORIKS    OF    ILLINOIS.  61 

for  the  red  men  did  not  love  the  white  men  over 
much,  you  know,  and  did  not  always  favor  their 
presence  on  the  western  prairies. 

But  when  the  first  frosts  came,  the  fort  was 
finished,  and  the  men  were  in  comfortable  quarters. 

Very  wise  had  those  men  been  in  the  choice  of 
the  site  for  their  fort.  On  one  side  of  the  palisades 
lay  a  branch  of  the  Chicago  River;  on  another  lay  a 
broad  swamp;  on  another  were  treacherous  sands 
beneath  which  the  waters  of  the  river  made  their 
way. 

These  three  sides  of  the  fort  were  not,  then, 
easily  approached  by  an  attacking  enemy;  and 
besides  all  this,  the  men  had  built  a  sallyport,  as 
they  called  it  —  that  is,  an  underground  passage  — 
from  the  block-house  down  to  the  river. 

Thus  protected,  the  little  garrison  settled  into  its 
new  quarters  for  the  winter. 

Fort  Dearborn  was  now  the  farthest  settlement 
in  this  ]^orth  West;  and  people  spoke  of  it  as 
w  away  out  west."  Wonderful  stories  were  told 


62  STORIES    OF    ILLINOIS. 

of  it,  and  adventurous  men  from  here  and  there 
began  to  gather  around  the  fort.  By  and  by,  a 
little  village  was  formed,  and  already  the  settlers 
began  to  speak  of  their  new  home  by  its  Indian 
name —  Chicago. 


The  first  man  settler  to  come  to  Chicago  was 
John  Kinzie.  Now,  John  Kinzie  had  led  an  adven- 
turous life,  even  from  boyhood;  and  when  he  came 
out  here  into  the  wilderness,  he  came,  no  doubt,  from 
love  of  adventure.  But  he  proved  himself  a  brave 
and  sturdy  man,  not  afraid  to  work  for  his  new 
home;  and  Chicago's  historians  are  proud  now  to 
speak  of  him  as  the  first  citizen  of  Chicago. 

63 


64  STORIES   OF    ILLINOIS. 

John  Kinzie  was  born  in  Quebec;  but  when  only 
five  years  old  went  with  his  mother  to  live  in  New 
York.  New  York,  in  those  days,  was  little 
more  than  a  town,  and  John's  adventurous  soul 
longed  for  greater  freedom;  so. one  day  he  boarded 
a  vessel  bound  for  Albany,  and  from  there  made  his 
way  back  to  Quebec. 

He  was  a  little  fellow;  and  many  a  time — -so  he 
used  to  say  afterwards  —  he  would  have  been  glad 
to  creep  into  his  own  bed  at  home  and  be  sure  of  a 
warm  breakfast  in  the  morning.  But  he  was  a 
plucky  lad;  and  having  reached  Quebec,  he  was 
bound  to  stay. 

It  was  not  very  long  before  he  found  work  with  a 
silversmith;  and  there,  hard  at  work,  he  lived  in 
Quebec  until  he  was  a  young  man. 

Now,  during  all  these  years  the  fur  traders  were 
making  stations  here  and  there  west  of  the  Allegha- 
nies,  where  the  Indians  might  come  to  sell  the  skins 
their  hunters  had  prepared. 

Wonderful  Indian  stories  these  fur  traders  had  to 


STORIES   OF    ILLINOIS.  60 

tell  of  their  life  at  the  stations;  and  whenever  one  of 
them  came  to  Quebec,  every  man,  woman,  and  child 
were  eager  to  hear  about  the  red  men  and  the 
marvelous  adventures  of  the  white  men  among 
them. 

All  this  was  sweet  music  to  John  Kinzie's  restless 
soul;  and  away  he  went  to  Detroit — then  a  little 
village  —  the  most  western  of  the  fur-trading 
stations. 

This  life  was  more  to  his  taste  than  that  of  a 
silversmith  had  been;  and  he  soon  made  friends 
with  all  the  Indian  traders  round  about.  He  went 
hunting  with  them;  he  gave  them  tobacco  and 
bright  colored  beads;  he  invited  them  to  the  camp; 
and  soon  the  Indians  became  the  best  of  friends 
with  the  "  white  brave  "  as  they  called  him. 

One  day  there  came  into  the  camp  an  old  chief 
from  Chillicothe.  With  him  were  two  maidens  — 
sunburnt,  weather-beaten  and  dressed  in  Indian 
squaw  fashion,  to  be  sure;  but  still  very  beautiful 
white  maidens  for  all  that. 


STORIES   OF   ILLINOIS.  67 

c  They  are  beautiful,"  said  John  Kinzie.  w  It  is 
wrong  for  them  to  be  brought  up  like  Indian 
squaws;"  and  the  man's  generous,  honest  heart  was 
filled  with  pity  for  them. 

With  John  Kinzie  was  a  young  Scotchman  — 
James  Clark;  and  these  two  brave  hearted  lads  had 
many  a  long  talk  over  the  beautiful  maidens. 

r  They  should  be  rescued,"  John  would  say. 

'They  should,"  James  would  say. 

Pr  Margaret  is  very  beautiful,"  John  would  say. 

'Yes,  but  Elizabeth  is  more  beautiful,"  James 
would  answer  again. 

'You  and  I  have  been  adventurers  long  enough/' 
said  John  at  last;  "  and  for  my  part  I  should  like  a 
home." 

"Well,  nobody  quite  knows  all  these  two  men  said; 
but  in  the  end  this  is  what  happened.  The  old  Chief 
went  back  to  his  home  alone;  James  and  John  built 
two  snug  little  cabins,  and  Margaret  and  Elizabeth 
took  their  respective  places  in  them,  the  proudest  of 
home-makers  and  housewives. 


68  STORIES   OF   ILLINOIS. 

For  five  happy  years  these  four  people  lived  on  in 
their  little  log  houses.  Then  one  clay  there  came 
into  the  village  an  old  man.  He  was  bent,  and 
gray,  and  feeble.  f  They  tell  me,"  he  said,  ff  that 
my  two  children  —  my  Margaret  and  Elizabeth  — 
are  living  here  in  Detroit ;  and  I  have  come  all  the 
way  from  Virginia  to  see  if  it  be.  true." 

Now  Margaret  and  Elizabeth  —  as  you  have, 
perhaps,  already  guessed  —  had  been  stolen  from 
their  home  long  before  when  they  were  little 
children.  In  vain  had  the  father  tried  all  these 
years  to  find  them;  they  had  been  carried  beyond 
the  Alleghanies  into  the  tribe  of  the  Shawanese, 
and  he  could  get  no  trace  of  them. 

The  Shawanese  chief  had  been  kind  to  them 
always;  but  the  little  girls  had  never  forgotten  their 
old  home,  and  had  often  wondered,  as  they  grew 
up,  if  they  should  ever  know  where  this  home 
had  been,  or  should  see  their  father  and  mother 


again. 


There  was  then  great  joy  in  the  two  little  cabins, 


STORIES   OF   ILLINOIS.  69 

ivhen  the  old  father  came  to  Margaret  and  Eliza- 
jeth;  and  for  a  long  time  he  dwelt  among  the  simple 
3eople  of  Detroit.  Each  morning  he  would  say, "  I 
mist  go  back  to  Virginia ; "  but  the  next  morning 
*till  found  him  in  the  home  of  his  children. 

At  last,  one  morning  he  said  "  Each  day  for 
kveeks  I  have  meant  to  go  back  to  my  home.  But 
t  will  be  very  lonely  there.  For  twenty  years  I 
searched  for«my  children. 

'f  Never  an  Indian  entered  my  village,  that  I 
lid  not  say  to  him,  "  Do  you  know  of  two  little 
^irls,  taken  captive  in  the  Dunmore  war  ?  Are  they 
still  alive?  Do  they  live  among  your  people?  Are 
they  being  brought  up  as  slaves;  or  has  some 
generous  chief  taken  them  to  his  wigwam,  where 
they  are  treated  kindly  and  protected  from  the 
cruelty  of  the  tribe?  But  no  one  could  tell  me,  and 
for  many  years  I  mourned  them  as  dead, 

"  I  am  very  old.  I  have  not  long  to  live.  I  wish 
it  might  be  that  my  sons  and  daughters  and  those 
little  grand-children  would  go  home  with  me. 


70  STORIES    OF    ILLINOIS. 

Virginia  is  a  country  of  fine  farms;  the  soil  is  rich, 
the  climate  is  mild,  and  farms  are  plentiful." 

But  this  picture  of  quiet  comfort  was  not  to  the 
taste  of  John  Kinzie  and  James  Clark.  Into  the 
hearts  of  Margaret  and  Elizabeth,  however,  there 
came  a  great  longing  to  see  the  old  home  they  still 
remembered,  and  the  friends  who  would  greet  them 
so  warmly.  The  old  father,  too,  they  had  grown  to 
love ;  and  when  he  spoke  to  them  of  his  old  age  and 
his  loneliness,  their  hearts  filled  with  sorrow. 

"Let  us  go  home  with  him,"  they  said  to  John 
and  James;  our  hearts  long  to  see  the  old  home  and 
our  people,  whom  we  have  never  known." 

So  it  came  about  that  the  two  daughters,  with 
their  children,  went  away  with  the  old  father,  back 
to  their  home  in  Virginia. 

N"ow,  to  go  on  a  journey  in  those  days  was  a 
great  event.  There  were  no  railroads;  the  country 
was  unexplored;  the  Indians  lay  in  wait  to  spring 
upon  the  white  people,  as  they  traveled  through  the 
forests  and  over  the  mountains. 


STORIES    OF    ILLINOIS.  71 

Margaret  and  Elizabeth,  however,  were  used  to 
danger  and  hardship;  so,  when  they  rode  out  from 
Detroit,  their  hearts  were  brave.  rf  Good-bv!  "  they 
said,  to  their  husbands  and  all  the  friends  who 
watched  them  setting  forth  upon  the  journey, 
"good-by!  We  shall  come  back  again.  Have  no 
fear  for  us!  " 

NYnv,  all  this  time,  the  Chicago  Portage  was 
coming  more  and  more  to  be  talked  of  among  the 
Detroit  traders.  The  Fort  had  stood  now  for  many 
years,  and  the  fur  trade  had  prospered. 

History  does  not  tell  us  why;  but  it  happened 
that  Margaret  and  Elizabeth  never  returned  from 
their  visit  to  Virginia.  Although  the  old  father 
died,  they  seemed  to  prefer  the  peace  and  civiliza- 
tion of  a  settled  country  rather  than  a  frontier  life 
of  hardship  and  danger. 

And  so  it  was  that  Kinzie,  again  alone  and  free 
to  wander  at  his  pleasure,  left  Detroit  and  went  to 
St.  Joseph's.  There  he  married  again,  and  when 
the  success  of  the  Chicago  Portage  was  assured, 


72  STORIES   OF    ILLINOIS. 

and  the  Indians  had  proven  their  friendliness  so  that 
it  seemed  safe  to  build  homes  outside  the  fort,  John 
Kinzie  set  forth  with  his  wife  and  baby  boy  for  the 
new  settlement. 

It  was  a  long,  hard  journey.  All  such  household 
goods  as  were  portable  were  heaped  upon  the  backs 
of  horses.  Mr.  and  Mrs.  Kinzie  each  had  a  horse; 
and  in  a  big  bag,  hung  on  the  horn  of  Mr.  Kinzie's 
saddle,  the  baby  was  placed.  In  this  odd  fashion, 
camping  at  night,  the  family  made  their  way  across 
the  wild  prairie,  along  the  Indian  trail,  to  their 
new  home  at  Fort  Dearborn.  John  Kinzie  was  an 
energetic  man.  In  a  very  few  days  a  cabin  was 
built,  and  the  Kinzie  family  —  the  first  residents  of 
Chicago  —  were  settled  in  their  new  home. 

From  a  French  trader,  Kinzie  bought  a  trading 
station,  and  began  at  once  a  brisk  business  with  the 
Indians.  Very  soon  he  won  their  confidence, 
so  upright  were  his  dealings  with  them,  and  before 
very  long  John  Kinzie  began  to  be  spoken  of  as  a 
man  of  wealtlu 


STORIES    OF   ILLINOIS.  73 

Every  year  he  improved  his  home.  First  it  was 
only  a  little  cabin  with  one  room;  then  another  room 
was  added,  and  then  another.  Windows  and  real 
doors  with  hinges  were  added,  the  walls  were  made 
close  and  warm,  by  and  by  a  frame  building  was 
made;  till  at  last  there  stood  upon  the  north  bank 
of  the  river,  opposite  the  fort,  and  facing  the  sunny 
south,  a  pretty  little  home  —  the  first  real  American 
dwelling  house  ever  built  in  the  city  of  Chicago. 


TECUMSEfl 


Tecmnseh  was  a  Shawanese  chief.  For  a  long 
time  he  had  watched  the  advance  of  the  white 
people  into  the  territory  of  the  Red  Men. 

Very  willing  were  the  tribes  to  sell  an  acre  of 
their  land  from  time  to  time,  and  to  keep  peace  with 
the  white  men  who  were  settled  upon  it.  They 
gave  no  thought  to  the  future;  but  were  content 
with  the  tobacco  and  bright  colored  trifles  which  the 

74 


STORIES    OF    ILLINOIS.  75 

white  men  were  always  ready  to  give  in  exchange 
either  for  furs  or  for  land. 

But  Tecnmseh  had  more  foresight  than  others  of 
the  simple  red  men  of  the  western  tribes.  Every 
sale  of  land  he  regarded  with  disfavor;  every  new 
village  that  sprang  up  he  watched  with  fierce  hate 
and  jealousy. 

f  We  shall  have  no  land  left,"  he  would  say  to  his 
people.  ''  Do  you  not  see  that  every  year  these 
white  men  are  pushing  farther  and  farther  west?" 

Now  Tecumseh  had  learned  to  read  and  write  and 
count;  and  not  a  settlement  was  there  through  the 
entire  North  West  that  he  did  not  know.  He  knew 
the  traders  far  and  near;  he  knew  the  number  of 
people  in  each  village.  Most  carefully  he  watched 
the  increase  in  population;  and  when,  in  1810,  there 
were  already  more  than  twenty-four  thousand  white 
people  wrhere  only  a  few  years  before  there  had 
been  only  a  vast  wilderness,  his  angry  soul  could 
endure  no  more. 

And   so    Tecnmseh    set    forth.     Up    and    down 


76  STORIES   OF   ILLINOIS. 

the  country,  from  tribe  to  tribe,  he  rushed  like  a 
madman.  Councils  were  held  with  chiefs,  and  mul- 
titudes of  red  men  were  called  together  to  listen  to 
the  torrent  of  eloquence  Tecumseh  was  ever  ready 
to  pour  out  upon  them. 

With  Tecumseh  was  a  brother,  Avise  and  cunning. 
He  claimed  for  himself  wonderful  powers.  He 
could  see  spirits  and  hear  spirit  voices.  By  the 
spirits  he  was  warned  of  the  danger  in  store  for  the 
red  men.  He  could  read  the  future;  and  he  urged 
the  people  to  rise,  even  as  Tecumseh  should  bid 
them,  and  go  forth,  thousands  strong,  to  overcome 
and  drive  back  the  intruding  white  men. 

^  Rise,  rise ! ''  he  said  to  one  reluctant  tribe ; 
ff  else  to-morrow,  in  the  midst  of  the  daylight,  the 
sun  will  hide  its  face,  and  there  will  fall  a  deep 
shadow  upon  the  earth." 

The  red  men  sneered  and  went  back  to  their  wig- 
wams. The  next  day  dawned  bright  and  clear. 
Higher  and  higher,  brighter  and  brighter,  climbed 
the  sun  up  the  eastern  sky. 


STORIES   OF    ILLINOIS.  77 

T  We  see  no  shadow,''  the  red  men  said;  and  they 
laughed  to  think  how  wise  they  had  been,  and  how 
foolish  were  those  tribes  who  had  been  frightened 
by  the  prophet's  words. 

Hut  even  as  they  spoke,  a  strange  light  began  to 
creep  over  the  land.  They  looked  up  to  the  sun  — 
there  was  a  shadow  upon  it!  Darker  and  darker 
grewr  that  shadow!  The  yellow  noon-day  light 
changed  to  a  dark  gray  twilight!  There  were 
strange  shadows  everywhere! 

''  It  is  as  the  great  prophet  said!  "  they  whispered. 
'  The  Great  Spirit  is  angry  with  us !  "     And,  tremb- 
ling with  fear,  the  chiefs  hurried  to  Tecumseh  and 
pledged    themselves     to     join    the     federation    to 
carry  war  against  the  white  men. 

?r  ^ow  the  shadow  will  be  lifted,"  said  the  prophet . 
And  the  shadow  was  lifted;  and  from  that  day 
the  prophet's  authority  over  the  red  men  was  estab- 
lished. Such  was  the  advantage  that  a  wise  ma  a 
had  always,  even  from  the  beginning,  over  the  simple- 
hearted,  superstitious  red  men. 


78  STORIES    OF    ILLINOIS. 

It  was  in  the  spring  of  1808  that  these  two  Indian 
leaders  set  up  their  tents  on  the  Tippecanoe,  not  far 
from  the  Wabash. 

Here  the  prophet  made  his  abode,  and  chiefs  for 
hundreds  and  hundreds  of  miles  around  came  to  him 
for  advice.  From  this  station  Tecumseh  journeyed 
north,  south,  east,  and  west,  stirring  up  the  tribes, 
and  planning  the  great  war  of  the  red  men  against 
the  white  men. 

All  this  the  white  men,  everywhere  through  the 
west,  watched  with  no  little  dread.  Tecumseh  had 
great  influence  among  his  people,  the  white  men 
well  knew;  and  an  Indian  war  was  a  thing  to  be 
dreaded,  even  by  the  bravest. 

For  a  long  time  there  was  no  outbreak,  even  upon 
the  frontiers.  Tecumseh  was  hard  at  work,  night 
and  day;  but  the  time  had  not  yet  come. 

Once,  when  Governor  Harrison  sent  a  message  to 
the  Shawanese,  it  was  received  with  bitterness  and 
the  messengers  sneered  at  as  dogs. 

All  this   showed   that  trouble   was  brewing,  and 


STORIES    OF    ILLINOIS.  70 

that  plans  for  vengeance  were  in  the  hearts  of  the 
Indians. 

Again  messengers  were  sent.  'r  How  dare  you," 
thundered  one  of  the  chiefs  of  the  red  men,  f?  come 
into  our  presence!  You  are  spies!  Right  here  is 
your  grave !  Look  at  it !  " 

But  just  then  Tecumseh  himself  came  forward, 
saying  to  the  messengers,  rf  Fear  not;  my  people 
shall  not  harm  you  here.  Go  back  to  Governor 
Harrison  and  tell  him  that  I  shall  come  to  talk  with 
him  at  Fort  Vincennes." 

In  a  few  days  Tecumseh,  with  seventy-five  of 
his  bravest  warriors,  did  come  into  the  presence  of 
Governor  Harrison.  For  more  than  a  week  the 
red  men  dwelt  in  the  camp  among  the  white  men, 
and  during  all  that  time  Tecumseh  stalked  among 
them,  stern  and  solemn. 

^N~ot  once  did  he  allow  himself  to  talk  with  the 
white  men;  not  once  did  he  forget"  his  dignity  as 
one  aggrieved.  At  last  he  spoke  to  the  white  men 
assembled  before  the  Governor. 


80  STORIES    OF    ILLINOIS. 

'Years  ago,v  said  he,  ffyou  white  men  made  a 
peace  with  us.  But  since  then  you  have  killed 
many  of  the  Shawanese,  and  yon  have  taken  our 
lands.  How  can  we,  then,  keep  peace  with  the 
white  men?  You  force  us  to  do  you  injury.  You 
do  not  want  us  to  band  together  against  you.  You 
try  to  set  our  tribes  one  against  the  other.  You 
would  make  us  fight  each  other.  We  red  men 
never  do  that  to  your  people. 

'You  are  driving  us  west.  You  would  drive  us 
into  the  lake.  We  are  forbidding  the  chiefs  of  our 
tribe  to  sell  you  any  more  land.  You  must  not  try 
to  buy  it.  If  you  do,  we  shall  make  war  upon  you. 
We  cannot  give  our  land  to  you;  for  then  there 
would  be  no  home  for  the  red  men." 

Poor  Tecumseh!  He  could  not  understand.  He 
could  only  see  that  there  was  danger  ahead  for  his 
people. 

Then  Governor  Harrison  tried  to  talk  with  him. 

'  Think,"  said  he,  "  how  the  cruel  Spaniards  treated 

you  in  the  past.     And  the  French !     How  little  have 


STORIES   OF   ILLINOIS.  81 

they  cared  for  your  rights  or  for  your  comfort. 
Compare  our  treatment  of  your  people  with  that 
of  these  other  nations." 

But  Tecumseh  was  only  maddened  by  these 
words.  He  sprang  to  his  feet  with  a  true  savage 
yell,  and  seized  his  tomahawk.  His  companions 
sprang  to  his  side,  their  knives  glittering. 

Quickly  Governor  Harrison  drew  his  sword,  and 
his  soldiers  rushed  upon  the  scene  with  sabres 
drawn.  "Shame  upon  you,  Tecumseh!"  thundered 
the  Governor,  ff  to  behave  like  a  savage  who  knows 
nothing  but  savagery !  " 

Then  Tecumseh  and  his  men  crept  away,  their 
faces  black  and  revengeful. 

"  I  forgot  myself,"  said  Tecumseh  the  next  day. 
?'I  should  not  have  grown  angry;  but  there  can  be 
no  peace.  The  chief*  of  your  people  may  sit  in  his 
great  wigwam  and  drink  his  wine;  but  you  and  I, 
Governor  Harrison,  out  here  on  the  western  fron- 
tiers, must  fight  it  out." 

Nor  did    Tecumseh,  even   for  a  moment,  swerve 

*  The  President. 


STORIES    OF    ILLINOIS.  83 

from  his  purpose.  Already  thousands  of  red  men 
had  pledged  to  join  against  the  white  men,  and 
the  times  were  full  of  danger. 

About  this  time,  too,  a  war  broke  out  between  the 
English  and  the  Americans  —  the  "War  of  1812, 
and  Tecumseh,  his  confederacy  now  organized,  joined 
forces  with  the  British  against  the  Americans.  All 
the  frontier  forts  were  reinforced,  Fort  Dearborn 
among  the  rest,  and  war  was  threatened  every- 
where. 

During  John  Kinzie's  eight  years  at  Fort  Dear- 
born, he  had  won  the  love  and  confidence  of  the 
Indian  tribes  for  miles  about;  still,  under  the  excite- 
ment of  war  and  spurred  on  by  Tecumseh,  no  one 
could  tell  what  even  these  friendly  Indians  might 
do. 

There  were  many  families  in  the  village  of 
Chicago  now,  and  all  looked  to  Kinzie  for  advice 
and  protection. 

At  the  risk  of  his  own  life,  Kinzie  set  off  among 
the  neighboring  tribes  to  strengthen,  if  possible,  their 


84  STORIES   OF   ILLINOIS. 

loyalty;  or,  at  least,  to  find  what  the  people  at 
the  fort  might  expect  from  them.  Even  those 
tribes  who  had  been  most  friendly  had  little  to  say; 

and  when  Kinzie  spoke  to  them  of  the  war  and  of 
y 
themselves,  they  sat  in  sullen  silence. 

f  We  cannot  depend  upon  these  red  men,"  was  all 
Kinzie  could  say  when  he  came  back  to  the  Fort. 

One  day  an  Indian  came  into  the  Fort  upon  some 
errand.  As  he  looked  at  the  women  and  children, 
he  said,  w  In  a  few  days  these  women  will  be  hoeing* 
in  our  corn  fields;  and  the  children  will  be  our 
captives."  This  certainly  was  not  encouraging;  and 
close  watch  from  that  time  on  was  kept  upon  the 
outskirts. 


LIBRARY 

Of^  THE 

UNIVERSITV  of  ILLINOIS 


8ti  8IATUE  COMMEMORATING  THE  MASSACEK  AT  KOKT  DEA.RBO.V, 

ERECTED  IN  CHICAGO. 


Among  the  tribes  that  fell  in  all  too  readily  with 
the  scheme  of  Tecumseh  were  the  Winnebagoes  on 
the  Rock  River.  For  a  long  time  they  lurked  in  the 
forests  round  about,  watching  their  chance  for  an 
attack  upon  Fort  Dearborn.  It  was  their  plan  to 
surround  the  settlement,  attack  first  the  outlying 
houses,  then  sweep  in  upon  the  others,  destroying 
them  all,  even  to  the  very  palisades. 

It  was  one  afternoon,  just    at  dusk,  that  twelve 


88  STORIES   OF    ILLINOIS. 

Indians  came  across  the  prairie,  entered  the  house  of 
a  white  man  named  Lee,  and  sat  down  in  solemn 
silence.  This,  of  itself,  was  nothing,  for  the  Indians 
often  came  into  the  houses  like  this.  And,  although 
their  manners  were  not  quite  like  those  of  white 
people  when  making  calls,  the  settlers  understood 
and  received  them  always  with  hospitality. 

But  on  this  occasion  there  was  something  unusual 
in  the  behavior  of  the  red  men.  They  said  nothing, 
but  sat  in  grim  silence;  and  in  their  eyes  was  a  fire 
that  boded  evil  to  the  settlement.  At  least,  so  two 
women  of  the  Lee  family  thought,  who,  pretending 
to  leave  the  house  to  feed  the  cattle,  ferried  them- 
selves across  the  river  and  hurried  to  the  Fort.  On 
their  way,  the  two  women  called  to  every  household, 
"To  the  Fort!  To  the  Fort!  The  Indians!  The 
Indians." 

In  one  house  a  woman  lay  weak  and  sick.  Beside 
her  sat  Mrs.  Kinzie,  when  the  terrible  news  reached 
their  ears.  Fleeing  to  her  own  house,  with  speed 
born  of  the  moment  of  terror,  Mrs.  Kinzie  rushed  in 


STORIES   OF   ILLINOIS.  89 

upon  her  household,  gasping,  "The  Indians!     The 
Indians  are  coming!  " 

John  Kinzie  sat  playing  with  his  children  about 
him.  Seizing  his  gun,  he  rushed  out  Into  the  town. 
Who  should  go  to  the  rescue  of  the  sick  woman  and 
her  children ! 

"I  will  go!  "  shouted  Ensign  Konan,  "I  will  go, 
while  you,  Kinzie,  hurry  your  people  into  the  Fort 
and  give  the  signal  to  all  on  the  outskirts !  " 

Leaping  into  a  boat,  with  six  brave  soldiers, 
Konan  rowed  up  the  river,  and  even  under  the  very 
eyes  of  the  red  men  rescued  the  poor  helpless 
woman  and  her  children,  and  brought  them  safely 
back  to  the  Fort. 

Now  the  gun  was  fired — the  danger  signal  — 
from  the  Fort,  and  every  settler  on  the  outskirts, 
understanding  well  what  it  meant,  hurried  with  his 
family  to  the  Fort. 

The  Indians,  finding  their  plot  discovered,  fell 
upon  the  Lee  household  with  most  brutal  fury. 
When  morning  dawned,  there  lay  the  ruins  of  the 


90  STORIES   OF   ILLINOIS. 

little  home;  and  beside  it  the  dead  bodies  of  two 
white  men. 

'  This  is  but  the  beginning,"  the  people  said;  and 
every  preparation  was  made  for  a  siege. 

Already  the  Fort  was  well  supplied  with  food  and 
ammunition.  Orders  were  issued  that  no  citizen  or 
soldier  should  leave  without  a  guard,  and  a  line  of 
sentinels  was  stationed  up  and  down  outside  the 
Fort. 

A  few  nights  later,  the  Indians  again  crept  into 
the  settlement.  The  signal  was  given,  and  a  volley 
of  shot  was  poured  upon  them  from  the  sentinels 
at  the  block-house.  With  a  yell  of  fury,  one  Indian 
hurled  his  battle-axe  towards  one  of  the  sentinels, 
then  turned  and  fled;  but  in  the  morning  the  stains 
of  blood  upon  the  grass  showed  that  the  shots  had 
not  been  fired  in  vain,  though  no  Indian  had  fallen 
dead  beneath  them. 

Weeks  passed  by,  and  no  other  attack  was 
attempted.  Scouts  were  sent  out,  but  there  seemed 
to  be  no  further  sign  of  trouble.  The 'Indians  were 


STORIES    OF    ILLINOIS.  91 

busy  with  their  farming  and  their  hunting;  and  once 
more  the  settlers  ^ent  back  to  their  little  homes. 
The  Indians  came  and  went  as  of  old,  the  white  men 
visited  their  camps,  trade  was  renewed,  and  peace 
seemed  to  have  again  settled  upon  the  community. 

But  there  was  trouble  now  at  Detroit.  General 
Hull,  w^ho  was  in  charge  of  the  American  army 
there,  had  grave  fears  for  the  future.  "  Go,"  said 
he  to  Winnemac,  a  friendly  Pottawatomie  chief,  "  to 
Fort  Dearborn,  and  warn  Captain  Heald  of  possible 
danger.  Unless  his  forces  and  provisions  are  such 
that  he  can  stand  alone  against  attack,  advise  him  to 
retreat  to  Fort  Wayne  at  once." 

Winnemac  set  forth,  and  for  days  and  nights 
traveled  on  through  the  unbroken  wilderness. 

It  was  a  most  exciting  announcement  he  brought 
from  the  east;  and  all  the  people  from  far  and  near 
flocked  to  the  block-house  to  hear. 

War  had  been  declared  against  England! 
Another  war!  And  the  country  had  hardly  recov- 
ered from  the  last.  Already  Michilimackinac  had 


o-2  STORIES   OF   ILLINOIS. 

fallen!  The  Indians  were  allying  themselves  by 
thousands  to  the  English!  Detroit  itself  was  hard 
pressed ! 

Serious,  indeed,  was  all  this  to  the  little  Chicago 
settlement;  for  what  could  so  few  men,  however 
brave,  do,  if  left  without  hope  of  reinforcement ! 

ff  If  the  Fort  must  be  evacuated,"  said  Kinzie, pf  let 
it  be  done  at  once,  before  the  report  of  HnlFs 
condition  reaches  the  Indians  round  about  us." 

rf  General  Hull  sends  orders  that  all  property  in 
the  Fort  be  distributed  among  the  Indians,"  Avas 
Captain  Heald's  evasive  answer. 

"Leave  all  the  goods  and  let  the  Indians  distribute 
for  themselves,"  said  Winnemac.  Pf  But  first  take 
your  people  to  Fort  Wayne." 

'That  is  right,"  said  Ensign  Konan,  for  this 
fierce,  fiery  young  officer  often  disapproved  of 
Captain  Heald,  and  seldom  failed  to  express  it. 

But  to  all  this  Captain  Heald  made  no  reply.  He 
sat  in  sullen  silence. 

On    the    next    morning,    at    roll-call,    lie    quietly 


STORIES   OF    ILLINOIS.  <.».; 

announced  that  the  plan  of  delay,  as  previously 
stated  by  himself,  would  be  carried  out. 

r  The  fool!"  growled  the  impatient  Konan. 
'?  Does  he  not  know  that  he  is  imperiling*  the  lives 
of  every  man  of  us ! " 

ff  Our  hold  on  Indian  friendship  is  too  frail  for 
any  such  c-onfidence  in  them,"  said  another. 

"Let  us  go  and  tell  them  we  are  at  their  mercy," 
sneered  Ronan. 

"I  will  distribute  the  goods  and  offer  rewards  to 
our  Indian  neighbors  to  escort  us  in  safety  to  Fort 
Wayne,"  was  Heald?s  only  reply  to  these 
remonstrances  from  his  officers. 

"Better  stay  and  risk  attack  than  do  that,"  said 
one  office  r  bitterly. 

Pf  I  could  not  do  that,  even  if  it  seemed  best,"  said 
Captain  Heald;  "for  we  have  no  provisions." 

"  But,  Captain,  you  have  cattle  enough  to  last 
six  months,  "  cried  Kinzie. 

r  We  have  no  salt  to  preserve  the  meat  with," 
answered  Heald. 


U4  STORIES   OF    ILLINOIS. 

"Jerk  it,  then,  as  the  Indians  do  their  venison," 
cried  one  soldier  angrily. 

But  Captain  Heald  was  unmoved,  and  the 
precious  hours  for  escape  flew  by.  Hardly  had  the 
sun  risen  again  before  the  savages  began  to  show 
signs  of  insolence.  Even  the  squaws  looked  in  at 
the  gate- ways  and  sneered. 

It  was  three  days  after  Winnemac's  arrival  before 
Captain  Heald  made  ready  a  council  with  the 
Indians.  The  council  was  held  outside  the  fort 
upon  the  parade  ground,  all  the  officers  being 
present. 

"  If  we  are  not  all  massacred  on  the  spot,  we  may 
count  ourselves  fortunate,"  said  Ronan ;  and  indeed 
a  massacre  was  not  improbable,  should  opportunity 
occur.  The  cannons  were  loaded  and  turned  upon 
the  parade  ground  ready  for  use  in  case  of  trouble; 
sentinels  were  placed  on  watch ;  signals  were  agreed 
upon,  and  Heald  and  his  officers  went  forth  to  meet 
the  Indians. 

"It  seems  best,"  said  Captain  Heald   to  the  red 


STORIES   OF   ILLINOIS.  95 

men,  "  to  leave  this  fort  and  go  to  Fort  Wayne. 
We  want  your  escort  from  fort  to  fort.  'Not  only 
shall  you  divide  among"  yourselves  all  the  goods,  both 
in  the  fort  and  in  the  agency  house,  but  on  reaching 
Fort  Wayne,  you  shall  receive  still  greater  reward." 

To  all  this  the  Indians  listened  with  stolid  faces. 
What  they  thought  no  man  could  tell.  But  they 
promised  all  that  Captain  Heald  asked  of  them,  then 
went  silently  back  to  their  own  camp. 

"What  have  you  done,  Captain,  in  giving  these 
savages  even  the  ammunition  from  the  agency 
house !  "  cried  Kinzie,  as  soon  as  the  Indians  were 
beyond  hearing.  f  What  if  they  should  hear  of  the 
fall  of  Michilimackinac!  What  if  Tecumseh  should 
send  messages  to  them!  Do  you  not  see  that  this 
ammunition  would  then  be  in  their  hands  to  use 
against  us?" 

At  this  Captain  Heald  seemed  to  awaken  to  a 
sense  of  possible  danger.  Ff  Perhaps  you  are  right, 
Kinzie,"  he,  said. 

"Right!  too  right,  I  fear!"  answered  Kinzie. 


96  STORIES    OF    ILLINOIS. 

r  Then  we  must  destroy  the  ammunition;  that  is 
the  best  we  can  do  now,"  was  all  Heald  could  say. 

The  next  day  the  Indians  were  called  together 
and  the  goods  from  the  fort  distributed.  "Come 
again  to-morrow,"  said  Captain  Heald,  "  and  yon 
shall  have  whatever  there  is  in  the  agency  house." 

'To-day!  let  ns  have  it  to-day!"  clamored  the 
red  men. 

CfXot  to-day;"  and  Heald  sent  them  away  angry 
and  discontented.  For  the  Indians  were  suspicious. 
They  felt  that,  in  sending  them  away,  the  white  men 
meant  to  deprive  them  of  the  contents  of  the  ageney 
house. 

'  \\  e  will  watch,"  said  they;  and  so,  as  soon  as 
darkness  fell,  they  crept  back  to  the  fort.  They  lay 
down  flat  in  the  grass  and  squirmed  and  crawled, 
serpent-like,  close  up  to  the  fort.  The  garrison, 
too,  were  very  still  —  as  still  as  the  Indians  them- 
selves —  andy  they  worked  in  the  dark.  The 
Indians,  lyink"  there  in  the  grass,  watched  and 
listened.  Thi\  white  men  weie  destroying  the 


STORIES    OF    ILLINOIS.  U7 

muskets !  And  see !  The  ammunition !  They  were 
throwing  it  in  the  well!  The  Indians  grew  wild 
with  anger.  Their  fierce  eyes  shone  like  fire. 
They  clutched  at  the  tall  grass  and  hissed  liked 
snakes. 

But  the  white  'men  were  busy  and  saw  nothing. 
They  rolled  the  casks  of  fire  water  out  from  the 
store  house.  Very  carefully  they  rolled  them  down 
to  the  river,  and  poured  the  contents  over  the  hank. 
The  fumes  of  fire  water  filled  the  air.  It  reached 
the  Indians  lying  in  the  grass.  It  was  to  them  like 
the  smell  of  powder  to  a  war  horse.  It  aroused 
them  to  redoubled  fury.  They  hissed  and  writhed; 
they  muttered  and  growled  and  showered  curses 
upon  the  treacherous  white  men,  who  not  only  were 
thus  attempting  to  deceive  them,  but  were  wasting  in 
the  river  current  cask  on  cask  of  precious  fire-wrater. 

They  wriggled  through  the  grass  up  to  the  river 
bank.  They  lapped  the  soil  over  which  the  fire- 
water had  poured;  they  drank  the  waters  of  the 
river,  laden  as  they  were  with  it.  Infuriated,  maddened 


1)8  STORIES   OF   ILLINOIS. 

by  the  taste  of  the  fire  water,  these  spies  crept  back 
to  their  camp.  Half  drunk,  they  staggered  into  the 
presence  of  their  chief  and  told  him  what  they  had 
seen. 

^ow,  as  we  know,  the  Pottawatomies  had  been 
true  to  their  peace  compact  with  the  white  men,  and 
even  now  their  chief  had  hoped  to  hold  back  the 
young  warriors  of  the  tribe,  who  longed  for 
vengeance  upon  one  and  all.  But  when  the  spies 
came  into  the  camp  smelling  of  fire-water  and  telling 
their  tale  of  treachery,  the  young  warriors  would 
not  be  held  back.  They  tightened  their  war  belts, 
seized  their  tomahawks,  and  filled  the  air  with 
threats. 

Early  in  the  morning  Black  Partridge,  one  of  the 
braves  of  the  Pottawatomie  chiefs,  came  into  the 
presence  of  Captain  Heald. 

'fl  come,"  he  said,  rto  bring  you  this  medal. 
You  gave  it  to  me,  and  I  have  worn  it  as  a  pledge 
of  friendship  to  your  people.  But  now  my  warriors 
are  angry  with  you.  You  have  deceived  them.  I 


STORIES  OF   ILLINOIS.  99 

cannot  restrain  them.  The  tribe  vows  vengeance 
upon  you;  therefore  I  return  the  medal." 

Black  Partridge  laid  down  the  medal,  and 
silently  turned  and  went  out  from  the  Fort. 

Xot  a  man  in  the  Fort  spoke.  Captain  Heald 
bowed  his  head  in  sorrow.  What  should  they  do? 
Only  one  box  of  cartridges  and  twenty-five  rounds 
of  ammunition  had  been  reserved  from  the  general 
destruction,  and  little  would  this  avail  against  an 
attack  from  the  Pottawatomies. 

But  already,  though  the  garrison  knew  it  not,  aid 
was  near  at  hand.  In  the  family  of  Captain  Heald 
was  a  white  man  who  had  been  brought  up  among 
the  Indians.  He  had  been  captured  by  them  when 
a  lad  of  thirteen  years,  and  had  been  adopted  into 
the  family  of  Little  Turtle,  a  chief  of  character  as 
true  and  noble  as  that  of  Black  Partridge. 

Little  Turtle  loved  the  white  boy;  and  while  he 
taught  him  to  live  the  life  of  an  Indian  warrior,  he 
taught  him  to  despise  meanness  and  cowardice  and 
treachery. 


100  STORIES    OF    ILLINOIS. 

Now  Little  Turtle  was  a  brave  and  daring  chief; 
and  when  the  boy  watched  him,  foremost  always  in 
honorable  battle,  straightforward,  upright,  kindly  in 
his  dealings  with  both  friend  and  foe,  he  learned 
many  a  lesson  of  truest  heroism  from  his  half-savage 
friend  and  foster-father. 

In  that  battle  in  which  St.  Clair  fell,  this  man  - 
William  Wayne  Wells  —  stood  and  fought  with  his 
red  men  —  his  adopted  people  —  in  the  foremost 
ranks,  till  the  dead  bodies  of  the  American  artillery- 
men lay  heaped  around  him  like  a  barricade,  shield- 
ing him  from  the  bullets  that  poured  in  upon  his 
people.  No  man,  red  or  white,  ever  fought  more 
valiantly,  more  bravely,  more  desperately  for  the 
cause  he  thought  to  be  right. 

But  when  this  battle  was  over,  and  Wells  lay  in 
his  wigwam  alone  and  thought  upon  the  great  con- 
flict between  the  white  men  and  the  red,  he  foresaw 
what  the  end  must  be.  He  realized  the  superiority 
of  the  white  men;  he  knew  their  cause  must  win; 
and  he  knew,  too,  that  it  was  right  and  best  both 


STORIES   OF   ILLINOIS,  101 

for  the  country  and  all  mankind  that  it  should  win. 
So  he  went  to  Little  Turtle  and  tolct  him  all  that 
he  thought;  for  to  desert  his  adopted  people 
unfairly  and  without  the  full  consent  of  Little 
Turtle,  his  straightforward  soul  would  never  have 
permitted  him  to  do.  All  night  long  Little  Turtle 
and  his  adopted  son  talked  of-  their  past  and  their 
possible  future.  All  that  was  in  his  heart  to  tell, 
Wells  told  to  his  good  friend. 

And  in  the  end,  Little  Turtle  grasped  the  young 
man's  hand  and  said;  ''  Go,  my  son,  and  do  whatever 
the  Good  Spirit  bids  yon;  for  it  is  He  that  speaks 
to  us  and  tells  us  what  is  right  for  each  of  us  to  do." 

And  so  it  was  that  Wells,  who  had  lived  so  many 
years  with  the  Indians,  and  who  loved  his  adopted 
people  as  his  own,  went  out  from  the  camp  of  Little 
Turtle  and  joined  himself  with  the  white  forces 
under  the  command  of  General  Wayne.  This  was 
during  the  revolution  in  1794;  and  in  the  battles  that 
followed  his  bravery  made  for  himself  a  name  that 
America  will  never  forget. 


102  STORIES   OF   ILLINOIS. 

But  now  again  the  Indian  war  whoop  was  ringing 
through  the  forest;  again  the  white  men  and  the  red 
men  were  at  war.  From  Fort  Wayne  news  reached 
Wells  of  the  danger  at  Fort  Dearborn. 

'  The  Healds  are  of  my  own  family,"  he  said  to 
himself;  "and  even  if  they  were  not,  I  would  go  to 
their  rescue  in  a  time  like  this." 

With  fifteen  Miamis  he  hastened  to  relieve  the 
unfortunate  garrison. 

Never  was  reinforcement  more  welcome.  For 
despair  had  settled  down  upon  the  little  garrison, 
brave  as  it  was.  It  was,  of  course,  too  late  to 
defend  the  Fort.  There  was  nothing  for  them  to  do 
but  march  out  from  it,  assuming  a  courage  that  they 
had  not,  and,  in  the  face  of  the  Pottawatomies,  angry 
and  revengeful  as  they  were,  make  a  bold  retreat 
toward  Fort  Wayne. 

''First  of  all,  go  to  sleep,"  said  Wells  to  the  worn- 
out  garrison;  "I  will  keep  watch.  You  will  need 
your  strength,  may  be,  to-morrow." 

Early  in  the  morning,  August  15,  1812,  the  troops 


STORIES   OF   ILLINOIS.  103 

were  ready.  At  nine  o'clock  they  were  to  march 
out.  At  daybreak  a  friendly  Indian  came  rushing 
into  the  Fort.  ff  Mr.  Kinzie,"  he  whispered,  ff  The 
Pottawatonries  are  ready  for  an  attack.  Conic  with 
me  —  you  and  your  family  —  and  I  will  carry  yon  to 
Fort  Wayne  by  boat." 

•fGo,v  said  Kinzie  to  his  wife  and  children; 
ffbut  I  will  inarch.  The  Pottawatomies  have  been 
friendly  with  me;  it  may  be  I  can  hold  them,  even 
now,  in  check/' 

But  hardly  had  the  boat  reached  the  mouth  of  the 
river,  when  another  messenger  came  running. 
*f  Stay  here!  Stay  here!''  he  shouted  to  the  boat- 
man; then  ran  back  toward  the  Fort. 

There,  at  the  mouth  of  the  river,  Mrs.  Kinzie, 
claspinp-  both  her  frightened  children  in  her  arms, 
waited.  Out  from  the  Fort  the  troops  inarched 
before  the  wagons  containing  the  women  and 
children.  The  mournful  notes  of  the  Dead  March 
floated  down  the  waters.  Wells,  his  face  blackened, 
as  was  the  custom  of  his  adopted  tribe,  marched 


104  STORIES   OF    ILLINOIS. 

along  at  the  head  of  his  little  band  of  Miamis, 
followed  by  the  escort  of  about  five  hundred 
Pottawatomies,  their  faces  set,  but  with  no  sign  thus 
far  of  evil  design. 

All  together  they  marched  along  the  shore,  until 
they  came  to  a  line  of  sand  dunes  stretching 
between  the  beach  and  the  prairie.  Here  the  com- 
pany separated;  for  the  Pottawatomies  now  turned 
towards  the  prairie,  instead  of  keeping  along  the 
shore  line  with  the  troops  and  Miamis.  ' 

r  What  does  that  mean?*'  said  Kinzie  quicklv. 
?  We  may  be  sure  these  red  men  do  nothing  without 
a  meaning." 

Meantime,  Wells,  riding  ahead,  was  watching 
closely.  Suddenly,  with  a  whoop,  he  turned  his 
horse  back  upon  the  troops. 

''The  attack!  the  attack !"  he  shouted.  "  They 
are  ready!  Charge  upon  them!  Charge!" 

And  almost  before  the  words  were  said,  out  there 
burst  from  the  sand  hills  a  volley  of  shot. 

Another   instant,    and  the    troops    charged    upon 


STORIES   OF   ILLINOIS.  105 

the  bank  and  poured  a  deadly  volley  upon  the 
crouching  savages. 

At  the  sound  of  the  first  shot,  Wells'  fifteen 
Mianiis,  panic  stricken,  fled.  Straight  up  into  the 
face  of  the  chief  of  the  Pottawatomies,  Wells  rod<\ 
brandishing  his  tomahawk  and  shouting  in  tones 
that  rolled  like  thunder  above  the  noise  of  battle: 

-You  are  cowards!  You  have  played  a  trick 
upon  us!  But  I  will  come  back!  I  will  punish  yon 
for  your  treachery,  even  as  the  Great  Spirit 
always  punishes  cowards  and  unfair  warriors!" 

And  before  even  a  rifle  could  be  raised  against 
him,  Wells  turned  and  galloped  across  the  prairie 
in  pursuit  of  his  Mianiis. 

Hand  to  hand,  man  to  man,  the  savages  and  the 
troops  fought,  drawing  each  other  back  and  forth 
across  the  dunes.  Five  hundred  savages,  and  a 
mere  handful  of  troops  to  hold  them  back! 

Ensign  Ronan,  one  of  the  first  to  fall,  staggered 
foward  and  fought  till  exhausted.  Then  the  red 
men  pressed  through  and  fell  upon  the  wagons. 


HH; 


BLACK   PARTRIDGE   SAVES  MUS.   HELM. 


STORIES   OF   ILLINOIS.  107 

One  savage,  with  a  howl  like  that  of  a  beast,  seized 
the  wife  of  Helm  and  dragged  her  to  the  ground.  She 
wrenched  herself  from  his  grasp,  but  his  tomahawk 
fell  upon  her  shoulder.  Springing  to  her  feet, 
strong  in  her  agony  of  pain,  she  seized  the  Indian 
by  the  arm  and  hurled  the  scalping  knife  from  his 
hand. 

Just  then,  another  savage  seized  upon  her;  and, 
dragging  her  to  the  lake,  plunged  her  into  the  water 
and  held  her  there. 

rflt  is  you!  You!  Black  Partridge!"  gasped  Mrs. 
Helm;  for  indeed  it  was  Black  Partridge,  and  it 
was  in  this  way  that  he  had  rescued  her  from  the 
tomahawk  of  the  enraged  Indian. 

It  was  a  brief,  hard  struggle;  bravely  though  the 
white  men  fought,  with  five  hundred  desperate, 
maddened  savages  against  them,  there  could  be  but 
one  end.  By  twos  and  threes,  the  white  men  fell 
beneath  the  tomahawks  and  scalping  knives  of  the 
savage  foe. 

Hardly  a  third  of  the  little  band  was  now  alive; 


108  STORIES    OF    ILLINOIS. 

and  these,  knowing"  the  hopelessness  of  their 
struggle,  surrendered  on  condition  that  the  women 
and  children,  such  as  were  not  already  slain,  should 
be  unmolested. 

"When  the  firing  ceased,  Black  Partridge  dragged 
Mrs.  Helm  forth  from  the  water,  and  placing  her 
upon  a  horse,  led  her  away  captive.  By  her  side 
walked  a  savage,  from  whose  belt  hung  the  scalp  of 
the  brave  Wells,  who  had  fallen  fighting  most 
bravely. 

Fainting,  the  captive  woman  sank  upon  the 
ground  before  the  wigwam  of  the  chief,  Wau-bee- 
nee-mah. 

But  already  the  plunder  of  the  Fort  had  begun. 
The  cattle  had  been  shot  down,  and  now  lay  dead 
and  dying  upon  the  ground  among  the  men  who 
had  fought  so  desperately.  And,  although  the 
savages  had  promised  to  spare  the  women  and 
children  and  also  the  few  remaining  troops,  they 
seemed  to  think  their  promise  did  not  include  those 
already  wounded.  These  they  seized  upon  as  if 


STORIES   OF    ILLINOIS.  109 

to  vent  their  fury;  nor  did  they  cense  until  every 
man,  woman  and  child  lay  dead  before  them. 

All  this  time  the  family  of  Mr.  Kinzie  sat  in  the 
boat  at  the  mouth  of  the  river,  unharmed. 

"Harm  not  the  wife  of  the  Shaw-nee-aw-kee," 
Black  Partridge  had  commanded  before  the  battle 
had  begun;  and  this  command  the  savages  had  not 
forgotten,  even  in  the  fiercest  of  the  fight. 

In  the  boat,  terribly  wounded,  covered  with  a 
great  robe  of  buffalo,  lay  the  wife  of  Captain  Heald, 
who  had  been  rescued  by  the  boatman  and  hidden 
there. 

By  and  by,  there  was  once  more  quiet  upon  the 
prairie.  The  savages  had  wreaked  their  vengeance; 
and  there  was  no  further  horror  left  for  them  to  do. 

The  Kinzie  family  was  carried  back  to  the  old 
Kinzie  home,  while  the  other  captives  lay  bound  in 
the  wigwams  of  the  red  men.  Here  the  Kin/ies 
remained,  guarded  by  a  few  friendly  Indians,  who 
meant  to  escort  them  back  to  Detroit. 

Black    Partridge    himself    stood    guard    over    the 


110  STORIES   OF   ILLINOIS. 

cottage;  and  it  was  well,  perhaps,  that  lie  did  so,  for 
the  next  morning  there  came  hurrying  in  upon  the 
scene  more  Indians,  and  from  another  and  fiercer 
tribe.  These,  hearing  of  the  intended  attack,  had 
come  from  the  Wabash  simply  to  take  their  part  in  a 
possible  battle  against  white  men,  whom,  one  and 
all,  they  hated. 

Thirsting  for  bloodshed,  they  rushed  in  upon  the 
scene,  only  to  find  themselves  too  late.  The  battle 
wTas  over,  the  spoils  divided,  and  the  scalps  all 
taken.  Only  the  Kinzie  family  seemed  to  them 
available,  and  these  they  reckoned  at  once  as  their 
prey.  And  so,  blackening  their  faces,  they  crept 
toward  the  little  cottage.  Entering,  they  seated 
themselves  upon  the  floor  in  sullen  silence.  Even 
Black  Partridge  felt  there  was  little  hope;  for  he 
well  understood  the  meaning  of  the  savages. 

Just  then  a  friendly  whoop  was  heard  outside. 

f'Who  are  you?"  shouted  Black  Partridge;  for 
canoes  were  moored  to  the  river  bank  and  red  men 
were  landing  just  outside. 


STORIES    OF    ILLINOIS.  Ill 

"  I  am  a  man,"  answered  the  leader  among  them. 
r?  A  man  like  yourself." 

"But  who  are  you?"  shouted  Black  Partridge, 
meaning  —  and  the  man  upon  the  bank  understood 
—  whose  friend  are  you? 

"I  am  the  Sau-ga-nash ! "  answered  the  man  from 
the  bank. 

'Then  come  quick!  your  friend  is  in  danger!" 
for  he  was  a  half  breed;  and  when  he  said,  "I  am 
the  Sau-ga-nash,"  he  meant,  "  I  am  an  English- 
man." Had  he  said,  "I  am  a  Pottawatomie,"  no 
one  would  have  known  better  than  Black  Partridge 
himself  that  all  hope  of  saving  the  Kinzies  was  at 
an  end. 

With  all  speed  the  Sau-ga-nash  hurried  up  to  the 
cottage.  In  an  instant  he  took  in  the  situation. 

"Well,  well,  good  friends!"  he  said  to  the 
savages,  "glad  am  I  to  see  you.  They  told  me 
there  were  enemies  here!  Strange!  and  your  faces 
blackened!  Why  is  that?  Ah,  but  T  know.  It  is 
that  you  mourn  for  friends  that  have  fallen  in  battle. 


TAISLKT   TO   (  OilMKMOUATK  FUKT   DEABOUN   MAS^ACRK, 
J'l.ACKD   0V    I'.ril  ]>IN<.    IN    CHICAfJO  OV   T1IK   SITK   OF   O1,l»   FORT   DF.AIiOUN'. 


STORIES   OF   ILLINOIS.  M :] 

"Or,  perhaps,  you  are  hungry.  If  yon  are,  ask 
for  food  from  Mr.  Kinzie.  He  is  the  Indian's  friend. 
Never  yet  did  an  Indian  go  away  from  his  door 
fttogry." 

By  this  time  the  savages  were  confused  and 
ashamed.  They  dared  not  tell  why  they  had  come; 
and  so,  to  save  themselves,  they  said;  ff  Tt  is  as  you 
say,  we  mourn  the  death  of  friends;  we  come  to 
ask  for  white  cotton  in  which  to  roll  them  for 
burial." 

'You  shall  rme  it,"  said  Kinzie;  and  loading 
them  down  with  all  the  house  could  afford,  he  sent 
them  away  crestfallen,  but  not  suspecting  that  they 
had  been  outwitted  by  the  Sau-ga-nash. 

On  the  third  day,  the  Kinzie  family  was  con- 
ducted to  St.  Joseph,  and  a  few  months  later  they 
returned  to  Detroit. 

Sick  and  wounded,  Captain  and  Mrs.  lleald  had 
already  been  sent  to  St.  Joseph  as  prisoners  of  war. 
Mrs.  Helm,  too,  was  finally  sent  to  Canada  as 
prisoner  of  war. 


114  STORIES   OF   ILLINOIS. 

The  soldiers  and  their  families,  the  few  who  had 
survived  the  cruel  slaughter,  were  scattered  up  and 
down  the  country  among  the  different  villages  of  the 
Pottawatomies;  but,  after  a  time,  all  these  were 
taken  to  Detroit  and  ransomed. 

So  fell  Fort  Dearborn;  and  for  a  time  it  seemed, 
indeed,  as  if  the  end  of  the  story  of  Chicago  had 
come.  For  who  then  could  see  into  the  future? 
AVho  then  could  prophesy  that  from  these  ruins  the 
city  should  rise  again — rise,  and  grow,  and  become, 
as  it  already  has  become,  the  foremost  city  in  the 
country  ? 


FORT   WAYNE   AND   FORT   HARRISON. 

Meantime  the  forts  at  Michilimackinac  and  at 
Detroit  had  fallen  into  the  hands  of  the  British  and 
their  Indian  allies.  Not  for  one  day  had  Tecumseh 
rested ;  not  one  opportunity  had  he  lost  to  spur  his 
people  on  and  to  turn  them  against  the  settlers. 

The  British  general,  Brock,  looked  upon  Tecum- 
seh as  the  hero  of  the  hour.  He  knew  full  well,  and 
readily  acknowledged  it,  that  very  much  of  the 
British  success  was  due  to  this  chiefs  tireless 
energy  and  unceasing  labor  among  his  own  people. 


116  STORIES    OF    ILLINOIS. 

Teeumseh  had  accomplished  all  that  he  meant 
to  do;  the  three  stations  were  destroyed,  and  the 
future  of  the  Northwest  seemed  hopeless.  It  seemed 
as  if  once  more  the  territory  must  fall  back  into  the 
possession  of  the  savages. 

Teeumseh  was  jubilant.  British  honors  were 
showered  upon  him.  Still  he  cared  little  for  that ; 
for,  be  it  said  to  this  chiefs  credit,  he  did  what  lie 
did  from  honest  love  of  his  own  people  and  for  the 
protection  of  what  he  truly  believed  to  be  their 
rights. 

With  the  fall  of  Michilimackinac,  Detroit,  and 
Dearborn,  his  spirits  rose,  his  courage  increased. 
Surely  the  Great  Spirit  was  with  him;  the  good 
manittos  were  helping;  else  such  grand  success 
could  never  have  been  his. 

All  this  the  prophet  told  the  red  men;  and 
spurred  on  by  success  and  the  assurance  of  the 
Great  Spirit's  approval,  they  rose  again  at 
Tecumseh's  call  and  gathered  their  forces  for 
another  campaign. 


STOKIKS    OF    ILLIN10S.  117 

•  It  was  the  plan  of  General  Brock  this  time  to 
carry  war  into  the  heart  of  the  "Northwest. 

There  were  still  Fort  Wayne  and  Fort  Harrison; 
and  these  must  be  taken.  "  We  must  destroy  these 
as  we  destroyed  Fort  Dearborn/'  General  Brock 
said;  and  Tecnmseh  was  ready  with  his  help  and 
hearty  approval. 

This  was  not  altogether  an  easy  task;  for  the 
British,  strangers  as  they  were  in  the  territory, 
knew  nothing  of  distance.  The  rivers  were  all  un- 
known to  them;  and  without  the  guidance  of  the 
savages,  an  attempt  to  attack  these  forts  would  have 
been  most  perilous. 

Tecumseh  knew  the  country  well;  and  was  ready 
to  map  out,  in  his  own  crude  way,  the  rivers  and  the 
route. 

With  this  as  a  guide,  General  Brock  laid  out  his 
plan,  and  at  once  the  campaign  was  opened. 

Fort  Wayne  was  to  be  attacked  first.  There  was 
no  time  to  be  lost,  lest  the  Americans  should 
re-enforce  the  place,  knowing  as  they  must  that 


113  STORIES   OF   ILLINOIS. 

Fort  Wayne  and  Harrison  would  not  long  be  left 
unmolested  by  the  British. 

The  savages  then  were  sent  ahead,  since  they 
could  march  more  rapidly,  with  directions  to  sur- 
round the  fort  and  see  that  re-enforcements  were 
not  received;  neither  was  the  garrison  to  be  allowed 
opportunity  for  escape. 

Of  the  several  tribes  who  joined  in  this  enterprise, 
none  were  more  eager  than  the  Pottawatomies. 
Little  had  they  ever  suffered  from  the  settlers;  and 
until  the  coming  of  Tecumseh,  none  had  been  more 
friendly  to  the  white  men  or  more  contented  with 
their  relations. 

But  now  the  savage  in  them  was  aroused ;  their 
success  at  Fort  Dearborn  had  whetted  their  savage 
appetites  and  made  them  impatient  for  more  blood- 
shed. 

Upon  their  eagerness  General  Brock  looked  with 
satisfaction.  He  could  afford  to  be  generous.  So 
he  said  to  their  chief,  •'  If  you  succeed  in  this,  the 
entire  contents  of  the  fort  shall  be  vours." 


STORIES   OF    ILLINOIS.  119 

At  this  the  tribe  rang  out  a  chorus  of  approving" 
whoops,  flourished  their  tomahawks,  and  made  ready 
for  the  onslaught. 

In  only  a  few  days  the  Shawanese,  the  Miamis, 
and  the  Pottawatomies  appeared  .before  the  fort. 
It  was  never  the  Indian  custom  to  make  a  bold 
and  open  attack;  and  so,  true  to  their  tribal  tradi- 
tions, they  scattered  themselves  in  the  forests  round 
about,  hid  themselves  in  the  grasses,  and  watched 
their  chances  for  catching  sentinels  off  guard  or  for 
sneaking  in  unseen  through  gates. 

While  these  tribes  lay  in  wait  at  Foil  Wayne, 
another  band  of  savages  fell  upon  Fort  Harrison. 
First  a  little  settlement  outside  the  fort  was 
attacked,  and  twenty  people  slain.  Then,  with 
twenty  scalps  dangling  from  their  belts,  the  savages 
pressed  on  close  up  to  the  fort. 

Young  Captain  Taylor,  afterward  President  of 
the  United  States,  was  in  command,  with  a  little 
garrison  of  only  eighteen  men. 

All  day  and  all  night  the  little  band  lay  in  dread 


ATTACKING    KOIM    II  A  UK  ISO  v 


STORIES   OF    ILLINOIS.  121 

suspense,  for  the  forests  were  alive  with  savages. 
Towards  morning,  the  report  of  a  rifle  brought 
every  man  to  the  barricades.  The  foe  were  skulk- 
ing outside,  and  a  few  shots  had  already  entered  the 
fort.  Then  the  blockhouse  was  fired;  and  at  the 
same  time,  so  that  the  attention  of  the  little  garrison 
should  be  distracted,  shots  poured  in  thick  and  fast. 

ff  Oft  with  the  roof! "  shouted  Captain  Taylor. 
"  Off  with  the  roof!  " 

At  this,  two  men,  panic  stricken,  jumped  the  walls 
and  fled  to  the  forest;  thus  the  little  garrison  was 
reduced'  to  only  sixteen. 

ff  Each  man  must  be  as  brave  as  ten !  "  said  Taylor. 
'  There  are  women  here,  and  children,  who  need 
our  protection." 

Above  the  din  of  battle  the  captain's  voice  rang 
out;  and  every  man  heard  and  obeyed. 

Quick  and  fast  these  sixteen,  men  loaded  and  re- 
loaded, and  the  savages  were  kept  at  bay.  When  the 
sun  rose,  they  withdrew;  and,  although  another 
attack  was  sure  to  come,  the  brave  garrison 


122  STORIES    OF   ILLINOIS. 

was  given  time  to  rest  and  prepare  for  stronger 
defence. 

In  the  midst  of  all  this  a  messenger  crept  through 
the  Indian  lines  and  made  his  way  to  General 
Harrison.  Without  a  moment's  waiting,  Colonel 
Hopkins,  at  the  General's  command,  started  out  at 
the  head  of  twelve  hundred  volunteers  for  Fort 
Harrison.  Never  was  help  more  welcome.  A  hard, 
quick  march  was  made,  the  Indians  dispersed,  and 
the  army  marched  in  upon  the  brave  sixteen,  wrho 
welcomed  them  with  as  joyous  cheers  as  sixteen 
men  so  worn  and  exhausted  could  raise. 

But  all  this  time  the  savages  about  Fort  Wayne 
were  busy.  They  made  no  direct  attack,  for  they 
waited  the  arrival  of  other  tribes.  They  even  made 
pretense  now  and  then  at  friendship.  Old  Chief 
Winnemac,  once  the  white  man's  friend,  was  now 
the  leading  spirit  in  the  treachery. 

It  was  their  plan  to  gain  admittance  —  a  few  of 
them  —  to  the  fort,  overpower  the  sentinels,  open 
the  gates,  raise  a  whoop,  and  thus  signal  the  tribes 


STORIES  OF   ILLINOIS.  123 

outside.  These,  listening  and  ready,  were  then  to 
rush  in,  and  so  the  fort  was  to  be  captured. 

Once  Winnemac,  under  a  white  flag,  was  admitted 
with  a  band  of  comrades.  But  he  found  the  guard 
drawn  up  inside,  rifles  in  hand,  and  ready  to  charge. 

He  saw  that  his  trick  was  understood.  Then, 
making  some  excuse,  which  no  one  failed  to  inter- 
pret, he  crept  out  from  the  fort,  unharmed,  because 
protected  by  the  flag  under  which  he  himself  had 
proved  such  a  traitor. 

For  two  days  more  the  siege  went  on.  Messages 
had  been  sent  to  General  Harrison;  but  no  one 
within  the  fort  could  know  whether  or  not  the 
messengers  had  succeeded  in  passing  alive  beyond 
the  Indian  lines. 

That  the  savages  were  expecting  reinforcements, 
was  evident;  and  so  both  waited  —  the  besieged  and 
the  besiegers. 

One  morning,  a  shout  of  triumph  and  a  thunder- 
ing at  the  great  gateway  brought  the  little  garrison 
of  eighty  men  to  their  feet. 


1-24  STORIES   OF    ILLINOIS. 

Had  help  come?  They  looked  out.  No  army 
was  in  sight! 

w  Who  is  it?"  the  sentinel  called. 

"Open!     It  is  I!     Oliver." 

Then  the  gate,  was  drawn  back,  and  William 
Oliver,  the  garrison's  old  sutler,  accompanied  by 
three  friendly  Indians,  rode  in. 

rp  Harrison  is  on  his  way!"  he  cried,  as  soon  as 
the  gate  was  closed.  rf  I  was  at  Cincinnati  when 
your  messenger  came  in.  We  hurried  ahead  to  tell 
yon  that  help  is  coming!" 

Brave  William  Oliver!  For  it  had  been  no  simple 
risk  to  dash  in  through  the  horde  of  savages  that 
lay  outside ! 

ff Harrison  is  on  his  way!"  This  was  welcome 
news;  and  every  one  of  the  eighty  felt  his  courage 
rise.  rfEven  though  the  savage  reinforcements 
arrive,  we  can  hold  out  twelve  hours,"  they 
thought.  And  surely  Harrison  will  reach  the  fort 
in  that  time. 

On  the  next  day  Harrison  did    arrive,  with    two 


STOUIES    OF    ILLINOIS.  125 

thousand  Kentucky  troops  and  seven  hundred  Ohio 
volunteers!  And  at  sight  of  him  the  savages,  with- 
out a  single  attempt  at  battle,  fled  to  the  forest. 
For  miles  they  ran,  pursued  by  a  few  of  Harrison's 
horsemen.  Not  once  did  they  turn  or  attempt  to 
give  battle.  On,  on,  like  the  cowards  they  were, 
they  ran,  scattering  in  all  directions. 

So  the  siege  of  Fort  Wayne  was  lifted;  and  once 
more  the  little  garrison  was  safe. 


Far  less  successful  had  this  eain])aign  been  thai 
the  first,  in  which  Detroit,  Michilimackinac,  anc 
Dearborn  had  fallen. 

Still  the  British  were  not  discouraged.  On  the 
contrary,  with  greater  vigor  than  before,  the) 
planned  a  third  campaign. 

Even  yet  Tecumseh  hoped  to  establish  a  boundary 
between  his  own  and  the  white  men's  countries,  one 
over  which  the  whites  should  pledge  themselves 
never  to  encroach. 

In  Tecumseh  the  British  still  hoped.  The\ 
looked  upon  him  as  their  strong  ally --the  one  red 


126 


STORIES   OF   ILLINOIS.  127 

man  who  had  power  to  sway  his  people  and  bring 
them  into  co-operation  with  the  British. 

It  was  to  Harrison,  however,  that  the  Americans 
turned  their  faces.  On  his  way  to  Fort  Wayne, 
messengers  had  overtaken  him,  bringing  him  his 
appointment  of  Commander-in-chief  of  all  the  forces 
in  the  Northwest. 

With  a  force  of  ten  thousand  men  Harrison  set  at 
once  to  work.  First  of  all  he  meant  to  provide 
protection  for  the  frontier.  Next,  he  prepared  to 
march  in  and  recapture  Detroit,  and  so  reclaim 
Michigan.  Nor  was  this  all.  Detroit  retaken,  he 
then  proposed  to  invade  Canada. 

A  magnificent  plan!  Yes,  and  western  heroism 
and  patriotism  were  fired.  Volunteers  were  impa- 
tient to  join  the  army,  for  Harrison  was  a  born 
commander. 

All  this  meant  endless  labor,  untiring  zeal.  First, 
there  was  the  soil  —  rich,  black,  oozing,  then  as  now. 
But  with  no  roads,  and  in  a  vast  uncultivated  region, 
it  was  a  terror  to  the  army  with  its  heavy  machinery 
of  war. 


128  STORIES   OF   ILLINOIS. 

Still,  at  Harrison's  call,  the  divisions  came,  wading 
often  through  the  black  marshes,  knee-deep  in  mud, 
mid  often  sinking  in  the  treacherous  swamps. 

First  of  all  came  the  terrible  defeat  and  massacre 
on  the  River  Raisin.  Then  Harrison  built  Fort 
Meigs,  where,  hemmed  in  by  mud  blockades,  he 
remained  even  until  the  British  General  Proctor, 
with  Tecumseh  himself  as  aid,  took  up  his  position 
before  the  fort  and  opened  fire. 

As  we  have  read  in  our  histories,  this  was  a  hard 
battle;  but  in  the  end  Harrison  was  victorious  and 
Proctor  withdrew,  although  he  had  with  him 
eighteen  hundred  Indians  —  more  than  Tecumseh 
had  before  commanded  at  any  one  time. 

Following  close  upon  this,  came  the  siege  of  Fort 
Stephenson,  in  which  the  Americans  were  again 
grandly  successful. 

Then  the  cry,  ff  On  to  Maiden!  "  the  grand  battle 
on  the  lakes,  Perry's  victory,  and  finally  the  battle 
of  the  Thames,  in  which  Tecumseh  himself  fell,  and 
the  war  of  1812  came  virtually  to  an  end. 


STORIES   OF   ILLINOIS.  129 

During  all  this  time  the  Kinzies  were  living  in 
Detroit  —  held  by  the  British  and  watched,  as  a  man 
so  patriotic  had  need  to  be  watched,  by  his  British 
prison  keeper. 

One  day  General  Proctor  became  suspicions  that 
Kinzie  might  be  in  correspondence  with  Harrison. 

f  We  must  shut  the  man  up,"  said  Proctor  to 
Lieutenant  Watson. 

So  Watson  went  to  Kinzie,  telling  him  that  Proc- 
tor wished  to  see  him  on  the  opposite  side  of  the  river. 

Kinzie,  suspecting  nothing,  crossed  the  river; 
only  to  find  himself  a  prisoner  and  under  guard. 

Hours  passed,  and  Kinzie  did  not  return.  ?f  Some- 
thing is  wrong,"  said  Mrs.  Kinzie;  and  she  called  a 
friendly  Indian  chief  —  one  who,  in  all  the  changes 
of  conditions,  had  remained  true  to  Kinzie  —  and 
told  him  her  fears. 

rr  We  will  see,"  said  the  chief.  And,  with  a  little 
band  of  friends,  he  set  out  for  the  house  of  the 
commanding  officer. 

To   avoid   trouble  Kinzie  was   released,  and   his 


1JO 


KKNZIK    SKK.S   THE   BATTUE* 


STORIES   OF   ILLINOIS.  131 

Indian  friends,  carried  him  back  to  his  old  station  in 
triumph.  But  in  a  day  or  two  Proctor  sent 
dragoons  and  they  arrested  him  again. 

r  Where  is  Shaw-nee-aw-kee?."  again  the  Indians 
asked. 

f  There !  "  said  Mrs.  Kinzie,  r'  taken  prisoner  by 
the  Red  Coats!" 

Without  one  word,  the  Indians  ran  down  the 
river,  seized  their  canoes,  and  rowed  across. 

It  is  not  recorded  what  they  said;  but  again 
Proctor  released  Kinzie  and  the  Indians  carried  him 
back  a  second  time  to  Mrs.  Kinzie. 

A  few  days  later  he  was  again  seized  upon,  and 
this  time  was  carried  to  the  prison  at  Fort  Maiden, 
at  the  mouth  of  the  river.  Here  he  was  a  prisoner, 
when  Perry's  victory  took  place. 

He  was  out  in  the^  prison  court  when  the  first 
sound  of  cannon  rolled  down  across  the  waters. 
What  could  it  mean!  Soon  the  battle  was  on,  and 
both  Kinzie  and  his  prison  keeper  watched  with 
breathless  eagerness. 


132  STORIES   OF   ILLINOIS. 

ff  It  is  time  for  you  to  go  back  to  your  cell,  sir," 
said  an  officer. 

rt  Never  mind!  Wait!  Let  me  see  how  the  battle 
goes !  "  cried  Kinzie. 

Just  then  a  sloop  rounded  the  point.  Pressing- 
close  upon  her  were  two  gun  boats. 

"What  is  that!  She  runs!  The  British  colors! 
See!  she  is  lowering  them!  Hurrah!  Yes,  Sir 
Officer,  I  am  ready  to  go  back  to  my  cell.  I  have 
seen  how  the  battle  has  gone ! " 

For  the  sloop  was  the  "  Little  Belt "  —  the  very 
last  one  of  the  British  squadron  that  fell  that  day 
before  the  gallant  Perry. 


And  now  the  war  was  over,  the  English  were 
driven  out,  and  the  Indian  confederations  broken. 
The  attention  of  American  people  was  again  turned 
towards  the  Northwest  as  a  future  home  for  the 
rapidly  growing  nation. 

During  the  war  much  had  been  learned  of  its  rich 
soil,  its  vast  prairies,  its  timber  lands,  and  its 
navigation  resources,  that  might  not  have  been 

133 


134  STORIES    OF   ILLINOIS. 

revealed   in    a    century    to'  come  had  not  attention 
been  forced  upon  it. 

All  these  glorious  conditions  began  now  to  be 
talked  about.  The  government  was  roused  to 
interest;  families  began  to  migrate  by  tens  and 
hundreds.  The  pioneer  spirit  was  awake. 

The  chain  of  Great  Lakes  grew  rapidly  in  the 
people's  recognition  of  their  importance.  The  Ohio, 
until  now  the  only  westward  commercial  route,  found 
itself  challenged  by  a  rival. 

And  with  all  this  renewal  of  interest,  we  may  be 
sure  the  "Portage  of  Chicago  "  was  not  forgotten. 
Indeed,  towards  this  were  all  eyes  turned;  in  it  was 
recognized  the  future  centre  of  the  western  home 
life  and  commerce. 

As  early  as  1814,  President  Madison,  in  his 
message  to  Congress,  recommended  that  it  give  due 
attention  to  the  importance  of  a  ship  canal  connect- 
ing Lake  Michigan  with  the  Illinois  by  way  of 
Chicago.  This  good  advice  the  War  Department 
readily  recognized,  and  Captain  Hezekiah  Bradley 


STORIES   OF    ILLINOIS.  135 

was  sent  to  rebuild  and  re-establish  Fort  Dear- 
born. 

With  two  companies  of  men  he  set  out  and,  as  it 
happened,  again  on  J'uly  4,  just  thirteen  years  from 
the  day  Captain  Whistler  had  sailed  with  his  ^  great 
white  bird"  up  to  the  portage,  this  man  landed  to 
rebuild  the  old  fort. 

Great  changes  had  taken  place  since  that  sunny 
day  thirteen  years  before,  when  Whistler  arrived 
and  the  natives  hurried  down,  amazed  and  pleased, 
to  see  the  white  men  and  the  white  bird. 

Here  stood  the  little  Kinzie  house,  almost 
unharmed,  and  near  it  lay  the  ruins  of  the  old  fort; 
and  there,  a  little  way  up  the  river,  in  the  stubble 
and  bunch  grass,  lay  the  whitened  and  weather- 
beaten  bones  of  the  brave  martyrs,  slaughtered  that 
day  when  the  savages  fell  upon  the  little  band  they 
had  promised  to  protect. 

Captain  Bradley  and  his  men  thought  of  all  these 
things  when  again  they  landed  upon  the  spot  that 
had  seen  such  suffering  a  few  years  since. 


136  STORIES   OF   ILLINOIS. 

Bat  these  men  were  brave  and  energetic,  too;  and 
they  set  to  work  at  once  to  build  a  new  fort 
upon  the  site  of  the  old  one.  This  new  fort 
consisted  of  a  strong  block-house  and  barracks  for 
the  soldiers  —  the  whole  enclosed,  as  before,  in 
strong  high  palisades. 

Hardly  was  the  fort  finished  and  the  place 
protected,  when  John  Kinzie  came  back  with  his 
family  —  again  to  make  himself  Chicago's  first 
citizen.  He  had  been  told  that,  out  of  love  for  him 
the  Indians  had  allowed  his  home  to  stand,  but 
even  he  hardly  expected  to  find  it  in  so  good  a 
condition. 

But  there  it  stood  —  even  the  vines  about  the 
porch  still  climbing  roofward  —  just  as  it  had  been 
in  those  other  days  when  these  same  people  dwelt 
there  so  happily  and  peacefully. 

"People  said  we  were  foolhardy  to  come  back," 
Kinzie  used  to  say;  "and  perhaps  we  were.  But 
we  loved  our  little  home  on  the  river,  and  we  wanted 
to  get  back  to  it;  so  we  came." 


STORIES   OF    ILLINOIS.  137 

But  Northwest  history  was  making  rapidly  in  these 
days;  and  in  this  very  year  a  treaty  was  made  with 
the  Ottawas,  Cbippewas,  and  Pottawatomies.  This 
treaty  all  the  chiefs  and  warriors  signed,  Black 
Partridge's  name  leading  all  the  rest. 

It  was  most  necessary  that  this  strip  of  land 
be  secured  for  a  future  military  road,  when  the 
time  should  come  for  the  building  of  the  ship  canal. 

But  the  surveying  was  not  done  exactly  as  we 
might,  perhaps,  wish.  Lines  did  not  always  meet, 
and  so  we  have  in  our  maps  of  Illinois  even  to  this 
day  a  monument  to  the  Indian  Treaty,  in  the 
diagonal  offsets  and  the  triangular  wedges  that  are 
to  be  seen  along  the  lines  that  bound  and  separate 
our  beautiful  townships  and  counties. 

The  new  colony  at  Fort  Dearborn  prospered,  how- 
ever; encouraged  by  the  Kinzie  family's  bravery, 
people  began  to  come  again;  the  block-house  itself 
was  rebuilt;  a  large  parade  ground  was  laid  out;  a 
magazine  was  constructed;  and  a  great  field  planted 
with  corn  and  other  vegetables. 


13«  STORIES   OF    ILLINOIS. 

* 

Communications  were  opened  with  the  several 
little  settlements  in  southern  Illinois,  and  boats  ran 
up  and  down  the  south  branch  of  the  Chicago  River, 
Mud  Lake,  the  Desplaines,  and  Illinois,  bringing 
supplies  to  the  fort. 

Pioneers  were  coming  fast;  and  in  the  very  next 
year — 1818  —  the  territory  sent  its  first  delegate  to 
Congress,  and  Nathaniel  Pope  applied  for  and  was 
granted  the  admission  of  the  territory  as  a  state  — 
the  State  of  Illinois ! 

There  were  very  few  settlements  in  the  northern 
part  of  the  state  at  that  time;  but  Congressman 
Pope  was  far  sighted  and  most  wise. 

The  northern  boundary  line  was  due  west  from 
the  southern  point  of  Lake  Michigan. 

This,  of  course,  did  not  include  the  portage  of 
Chicago. 

'  We  must  have  Chicago  in  Illinois,"  Pope  firmly 
declared.  "It  will  be  a  great  centre  by  and  by. 
Why  should  not  Illinois  have  the  glory?  " 

And  so  he  set    to    work    to    have    the    boundary 


STORIES    OF    ILLINOIS.  i  3<) 

changed.     He  wrote  his  reasons    most    clearly  and 
laid  them  before  Congress. 

Congress  accepted  the  change;  and  there  has  not 
been  an  epoch  in  our  history  since  but  has  shown 
how  wise  and  far-sighted  an  act  this  was  on  the  part 
of  Illinois'  first  Congressman. 


The  Northwest  was  rapidly  becoming  populated. 
Wars  were  over;  our  territory  was  secure;  the  East 
was  becoming  crowded;  rumors  of  the  wonderful 
country  and  its  great  advantages  were  spreading 
,  up  and  down  the  Atlantic  coast,  and  not  only  men 
for  business  purposes  alone,  but  whole  families - 
sometimes  whole  neighborhoods  —  were  coming  out 
across  the  prairies. 

140 


STORIES    OF    ILLINIOS.  141 

The  country  along  the  eastern  coast  of  Lake 
Michigan  still  belonged  to  the  Pottawatomies,  the 
Ottawa*,  and  the  Chippewas.  The  white  people 
were,  however,  crowding  close  upon  them,  and  the 
time  came  when  both  Indians  and  white  men  were 
glad  to  make  a  treaty  that  should  make  them  both 
feel  more  secure. 

It  was  in  1821  and  at  Chicago  that  this  treaty 
was  made.  Lewis  Cass,  the  Governor -of  Michigan 
represented  the  white  men,  and  Metea,  a  Potta- 
watomie  Chief,  represented  the  red  men. 

One  of  our  greatest  authorities  on  Ihdian  affairs 
was  Henry  Schoolcraft.  He  had  travelled  among  the 
Indians,  had  studied  them,  learned  their  Languages, 
their  legends,  their  manners  and  customs.  At  the 
time  of  this  treaty  Henry  Schoolcraft  was  the  Indian 
Agent  for  the  United  States  and  was  located  in  this 
section.  He  was  present  at  the  treaty  gathering, 
and  because  he  wrote  it  out  as  no  one  else  could 
write  it — so  vigorously,  so  truthfully,  so  intelligently 
— why  may  we  not  read  the  story  in  his  own  words? 


142  STORIES   OF    ILLINOIS. 

f  To  accommodate  the  numerous  delegation  which 
gathered  at  Chicago  at  this  council,  great  prepara- 
tions had  to  be  made  at  the  expense  of  the 
government.  Rations  must  be  issued,  not  only  to 
the  chiefs  who  took  part  in  the  deliberations,  but  to 
all  who  came'  as  spectators  to  grunt  out  gutteral 
approbation  to  the  various  speeches  to  be  made. 

'These  numbered  over  three  thousand;  they  had 
wearily  toiled  around  the  southern  extremity  of 
Lake  Michigan,  and  reached  Chicago  with  a  keen 
relish  for  the  'mess  of  pottage'  for  which  their 
birthright  was  to  be  sold,  and  he  who  would  deny 
this  poor  pittance  to  them  ought  to  be  branded  with 
anathema.  The  northern  bank  of  the  river  immedi- 
ately opposite  the  fort  was  the  spot  selected  for  the 
council,  within  range  of  its ,  guns  —  perhaps  as  a 
measure  of  caution.  In  the  centre  of  the  grounds 
an  open  bower  was  erected,  with  rustic  seats  for  the 
chiefs.  Two  or  three  days  were  taken  up  in 
formalities  essential  to  the  etiquette  of  Indian 
customs  in  all  important  negotiations,  and  the 


STORIES   OF    ILLINOIS.  143 

council  was  opened  by  a  speech  from  Governor 
Cass,  setting  forth  the  objects  of  the  convention,  in 
which  the  politic  orator  emphasized  his  words 
describing  the  benefits  resulting  to  the  Indians 
through  the  money  and  goods  they  were  to  get  for 
Iheir  lands,  and,  after  reminding  them  that  their 
country  was  now  nearly  destitute  of  game,  formally 
proposed  to  buy  it,  generously  offering  to  let  them 
still  retain  portions  of  it  till  wanted  for  settle- 
ments, although  they  were  receiving  annuities  for 
the  same. 

"A  short  pause  ensued  after  the  respectful  atten- 
tion which  the  Indians  had  given  to  this  speech,  and 
then  after  two  days'  consideration,  Metea  replied  to 
it  in  his  happiest  vein  of  oratory.  The  following 
are  extracts  from  it. 

' '  My  Father,  our  country  was  given  to  us  by  the 
Great  Spirit,  who  gave  it  to  us  to  hunt  upon,  to 
make  our  corn  fields  upon,  and  to  live  upon,  and  to 
make  our  beds  upon  when  we  die;  and  he  would 
never  forgive  us  should  we  now  bargain  it  away. 


144  STORIES   OF    ILLINOIS. 

When  you  first  spoke  to  us  of  the  lands  of  the  St. 
Marys,  we  said  we  had  a  little,  and  agreed  to  sell 
you  a  piece  of  it;  but  we  told  you  we  could  spare 
no  more.  Now  you  ask  us  again.  You 'a  re  never 
satisfied!  We  have  sold  you  a  great  tract  of  land 
already;  but  it  is  not  enough!  We  sold  it  to  you 
for  the  benefit  of  your  children,  to  farm  and  to  live 
upon.  We  shall  want  it  all  for  ourselves.  We 
know  not  how  long  we  may  live,  and  we  wish  to 
leave  some  lands  for  our  children  to  hunt  upon. 
You  are  gradually  taking  away  our  hunting  grounds. 
We  are  growing  uneasy.  What  lands  you  have 
you  may  retain,  but  we  shall  sell  no  more.  You 
think  perhaps  I  speak  in  passion,  but  my  heart  is 
good  towards  you.  AVe  have  now  told  you  what  we 
had  to  say.  It  is  what  was  determined  on  in  a 
council  among  ourselves;  and  what  I  have  spoken 
is  the  voice  of  my  nation.  But  do  not  think  we 
have  a  bad  opinion  of  you.  We  speak  to  you  with 
a  good  heart,  and  the  feelings  of  a  friend.' 

"Governor  Cass  replied  to  this  speech,  indulging 


STORIES   OF  ILLINOIS.  Ho 

in  soft  words  not  unjustly  applied,  as  due  in  the 
main  to  the  honor  and  good  faith  of  the  Indians,  to 
which  various  Indian  chiefs  replied  in  the  usual 
style  of  Indian  oratory.  John  Kinzie  also  made  a 
speech,  in  which  he  refuted  a  charge  of  non-fulfill- 
ment of  treaty  obligations  on  the  part  of  the  United 
States.  These  deliberations  lasted  till  the  23rd, 
pending  which  no  one  doubted,  either  white  or 
Indians,  that  the  latter  would  come  to  the  terms 
required  of  them  and  sell  their  lands,  but  no  signs 
of  yielding  were  yet  manifest  in  the  impenetrable 
countenances  of  the  chiefs,  as  the  council  was  closed 
on  this  day  by  one  of  the  chiefs,  who  said : 

f My  Father,  it  is  late;  I  shall  do  no  more  to-day; 
but  to-morrow  you  shall  hear  our  final  council. 
You  are  hungry  by  this  time.  You  white  men  eat 
at  certain  fixed  hours;  we  Indians  do  what  we  have 
to  do  and  eat  when  it  is  convenient. ' 

"  The  deliberations  lasted  till  the  29th,  when  the 
treaty  was  signed  by  both  parties. 

w  The  Indians   made    a    cession  of  their   land    in 


146  STORIES    OF    ILLINOIS. 

Michigan,  amounting  to  over  five  million  acres,  for 
which  the  Pottawatomies  were  to  receive  an  annuity 
of  five  thousand  dollars  per  annum  for  twenty  years, 
in  specie,  and  the  sum  of  one  thousand  dollars 
expended  annually  among  them  during  the  time  to 
support  a  blacksmith  and  a  teacher.  The  right  to 
immediately  construct  roads  through  the  territory 
ceded,  connecting  Detroit,  Fort  Wayne,  and 
Chicago,  was  also  guaranteed. 

f  The  Ottawas  were  to  receive  a  perpetual  annuity 
of  one  thousand  dollars,  and  for  ten  years  the  sum 
of  fifteen  hundred  dollars  expended  annually  to 
furnish  them  a  blacksmith  and  a  teacher." 

This  was,  of  course,  a  great  gain,  both  in  territory 
and  in  security  to  the  white  people,  and  it  gave,  too, 
a  great  impetus  to  immigration.  Still  we  must 
remember  life  was  very  crude  and  simple  here,  even 
then,  in  1821. 

The  garrison  and  the  few  citizens  of  the  place 
amused  themselves  with  hunting  and  fishing.  Sup- 
plies were  obtained  from  Detroit  by  a  sailing  vessel 


STORIES   OF   ILLINOIS.  147 

in  her  annual  trip,  or  from  Southern  Illinois,  up  the 
Illinois  and  Desplaines  rivers,  to  this  then  obscure 
port,  environed  as  it  was  by  a  hundred  miles  of 
wilderness. 

Colonel  Childs,  of  La  Crosses  once  wrote  of  the 
country  at  this  time:  - 

"  In  1821,  I  made  a  trip  to  St.  Louis  in  a  bark 
canoe  up  Fox  River,  across  the  Portage,  and  down 
the  Wisconsin  to  Prairie  clu  Chien,  and  thence  down 
the  Mississippi.  I  was  sixteen  days  on  my  journey, 
and  saw  but  seven  white  men  in  the  whole  distance, 
outside  the  forts.  I  met  one  keel-boat  on  the  Mis- 
sissippi bound  for  Fort  Armstrong  at  Rock  Island. 
There  was  a  small  garrison  opposite  the  mouth  of 
the  Des  Moines  River.  There  were  but  few 
Americans  and  few  Spaniards  at  St.  Louis;  the 
inhabitants  were  mostly  French.  There  was  but 
one  brick  building  in  the  place,  and  no  buildings 
were  located  on  Front  Street,  or  where  the  levee 
now  is.  I  remained  two  weeks,  when  I  was  advised 
to  return  by  way  of  the  Illinois  River. 


H8  STORIES   OF   ILLINOIS. 

"I  started  by  that  route,  and  the  next  day  was 
taken  down  with  the  ague  and  fever,  and  the  day 
following  one  of  my  men  was  taken  with  the  same 
complaint,  which  left  me  with  one  Frenchmen  and 
one  Indian  to  paddle  my  canoe.  I  did  not  provide 
a  sufficiently  large  stock  of  provisions  when  I  left 
St.  Louis,  presuming  that  I  could  get  plenty  on  the 
Illinois.  But  all  I  was  able  to  obtain  was  one  ham 
full  of  maggots,  and  one  peck  of  Indian  meal.  I 
saw  but  one  house  from  the  mouth  of  the  Illinois  to 
Fort  Clark,  where  Peoria  now  is,  at  which  latter- 
place  one  French  trader  resided.  When  we  reached 
there  I  was  completely  exhausted,  and  remained  a 
few  days  to  recruit  ;;  little. 

We  continued  up  the  Illinois  to  the  junction  of 
the  Kankakee  and  Eau  Plaine,  and  thence  up  the 
Eau  Plaine  to  where  I  supposed  we  had  to  make  a 
portage  to  Chicago  River;  but  1  could  not  see  any 
signs  of  the  portage.  There  had  been  heavy  rains 
for  several  days,  which  had  so  raised  the  streams 
that  they  overflowed  their  banks.  I  concluded  that 


STORIES   OF   ILLINOIS.  149 

I  had  gone  far  enough  for  the  portage,  so  I  left 
the  Eau  Plaine  and  took  a  northeast  direction. 
After  traveling  a  few  miles,  I  found  the  current  of 
the  Chicago  River.  The  whole  country  was  inun- 
dated; I  found  not  less  than  two  feet  of  water  all 
the  way  across  the  portage. 

T  That  night  I  arrived  at  Chicago,  pitched  my  tent 
on  the  bank  of  the  lake,  and  went  to  the  fort  for 
provisions.  I  was  not,  however,  able  to  obtain  any; 
the  commissary  informing  me-  that  the  public  stores 
were  so  reduced  that  the  garrison  were  subsisting 
on  half  rations,  and  he  knew  not  when  they  would 
get  any  more.  I  went  to  Colonel  Beaubien,  who 
furnished  me  with  a  small  supply.  I  found  two 
traders  here  from  Mackinaw;  and  as  my  men  were 
all  sick,  I  exchanged  my  tent  and  canoe  for  a  horse, 
and  took  passage  on  the  Mackinaw  boat  for 
Manitowoc.  One  of  our  party  had  to  go  by  land 
on  horse  back.  There  were  at  this  time  but  two 
families  residing  outside  of  the  fort  at  Chicago, 
those  of  Mr.  Kinzie  and  of  Colonel  Beaubien." 


BLACK  HAWK  WAR 

JL. 


But,  although  a  treaty  had  been  made,  and 
although  for  a  time  there  was  peace  and  comparative 
safety  in  these  little  western  settlements,  cessation 
of  all  Indian  troubles  had  not  yet  come. 

There  was  Black  Hawk,  in  whom  the  spirit  of 
Tecumseh  still  lived;  and  there  were,  alas!  white 
men  who  were  ready  to  push  the  savages,  fairly  or 
unfairly,  let  but  the  opportunity  arise. 

Now,  it  was  on  the  15th  day  of  July,  1822,  that 

150 


STORIES   OF   ILLINOIS.  151 

Keokuk,  the  chief  of  the  Sacs  and  Foxes,  ceded 
to  the  United  States  all  the  territory  owned  by  his 
tribe  east  of  the  Mississippi,  and  agreed  to  with- 
draw across  the  river  during  the  following  year. 

'  This  is  not  fair!  "  Black  Hawk  thundered  when 
he  heard  of  the  action  of  Keokuk;  and  at  once 
this  warrior  arrayed  himself  against  the  chief  and 
against  the  white  people. 

Keokuk,  true  to  his  agreements,  crossed  the  river, 
taking  with  him  the  greater  part  of  his  tribe.  But 
Black  Hawk  refused  to  move  a  step.  pf  I  shall  stay 
here  upon  my  own  territory,"  he  said.  '  The  treaty 
is  not  fair,  and  the  white  men  know  it  was  made 
by  only  four  of  our  chiefs,  and  that,  too,  after  the 
white  men  had  first  made  them  drunk." 

"  Tell  me,"  said  Black  Hawk  to  the  Indian  Agent ; 
"is  this  treaty  fair?" 

-You  can  do  nothing,"  said  the  Indian  Agent; 
w  the  land  was  sold  to  the  government,  and  already 
the  government  has  sold  it  to  individuals  who  will 
soon  claim  their  portions." 


152  STORIES   OF   ILLINOIS. 

"It  is  a  lie!  "  Black  Hawk  growled;  and  away  he 
went  to  his  old  British  allies  at  Maiden. 

wlf  you  have  not  sold  your  home  it  is  certainly 
yours,"  said  the  British,  ready,  of  course,  to 
sympathize  with  Black  Hawk,  more  especially  now 
that  he  was  arrayed  against  the  Government  of  the 
United  States. 

?  Then  I  shall  defend  my  home ! "  was  the  old 
chiefs  tragic  answer;  and  away  he  hurried  to  the 
chiefs  of  the  different  tribes,  bent,  as  Tecumseh  had 
been  before  him,  on  stirring  up  a  war. 

Not  for  one  moment  was  this  fierce  determination 
absent  from  his  thoughts.  He  talked  of  it  by  day  and 
he  dreamed  of  it  by  night;  and  when,  on  his  return 
from  a  hunting  expedition,  he  found  his  own  village 
already  taken  possession  of  by  the  white  men,  and 
active  preparations  in  force  for  cultivating  the 
rich  seven  hundred  acres  on  which,  for  so  many 
years,  Black  Hawk's  people  had  raised  their  crops  of 
corn,  his  fury  burst  forth. 

Now,  whether  or  not  the  original  treaty  had  been 


STORIES    OF    ILLINOIS.  153 

fair,  this  last  act  even  the  white  men  knew  full  well 
was  an  unwarrantable  proceeding.  The  frontier 
settlements  were  fifty  miles  away;  and  there  was  no 
reason,  other  than  deliberate  design,  why  this  little 
spot  should  have  been  seized  upon  just  now  by 
white  men. 

Black  Hawk's  fury  knew  no  bounds.  Even 
Keokuk,  under  this  insult,  could  not  hold  back  his 
warriors.  With  Black  Hawk  at  their  head,  they 
fell  upon  the  little  white  settlement  and  took 
possession  of  the  field. 

But  even  now  a  compromise  was  made;  the  white 
men  should  cultivate  one  half  the  seven  hundred 
acres,  and  the  squaws  the  other  half.  Pressed  by 
necessity,  both  red  men  and  white  men  agreed  to 
this.  But  little  advantage  was  the  arrangement 
to  either  side.  The  white  men  plowed  up  the  corn 
the  squaws  had  planted,  and  the  squaws,  in  re- 
venge, drove  their  cows  into  the  fields  of -the  white 
men. 

The    latter   called    for    military    assistance,    and 


154  STORIES   OF    ILLINOIS. 

General  Games,  at  once  advancing  to  Rock  Island, 
summoned  a  council. 

"Who  is  this  Black  Hawk?"  he  asked  with  a 
sneer.  Black  Hawk  trembled  with  fury.  >r  You  ask 
who  is  Black  Hawk;  and  why  does  he  sit  among 
the  chiefs?  I  will  tell  you  who  I  am!  I  am  a  Sac! 
My  father  was  a  warrior!  Ask  these  braves  who 
have  followed  me  to  battle!  They  will  tell  you  who 
I  am!  Provoke  our  people  to  war,  and  you  yourself 
will  learn  who  Black  Hawk  is!  v 

'You  will  leave  this  territory  and  cross  the  Mis- 
sissippi," was  General  Games'  peremptory  reply  to 
this  outburst  of  simple  eloquence. 

rfl  will  not!"  Black  Hawk  answered;  and  so  the 
council  ended. 

But  Black  Hawk  knew  full  well  he  could  not, 
with  his  little  band,  stand  against  the  militia  of  the 
United  States.  Accordingly  he  withdrew  across 
the  river,  *  and  General  Gaines  counted  the  Black 
Hawk  insurrection  at  an  end. 

Black  Hawk  however,  was  no  such  warrior.     He 


STORIES    OF    ILLINOIS.  155 

could  wait;  but  surrender  his  purpose  he  would  not. 

At  once  he  set  to  work.  He  sent  emissaries  to  all 
the  tribes,  calling  upon  them  to  band  with  him 
against  this  common  foe. 

The  emissaries  came  back  pretending  to  have 
secured  promises  of  aid  from  the  Chippewas,  the 
Pottawatomies,  the  Ottawas  and  the  Winnebagos. 
In  this  faith  Black  Hawk  assembled  his  people. 
They  crossed  the  river,  landing  near  the  fort  at  the 
mouth  of  Rock  River. 

f  We  are  going  to  our  friends,  the  Winnebagos,r 
Black  Hawk  answered,  when  messengers  were  sent 
after  him.  T  We  go  to  plant  corn  in  the  territory  of 
the  Winnebagos! " 

But  the  white  men  had  good  reason  to  doubt  the 
truth  of  the  savage  chief's  word  just  here;  and  a 
force  of  militia  followed  close  upon  Black  Hawk's 
trail. 

A  skirmish  followed  in  which  Black  Hawk's 
warriors  were  victorious;  and  Black  Hawk,  excited 
by  his  success,  sent  runners  to  every  Indian  tribe, 


156  STORIES    OF    ILLINOIS. 

urging  them,  with  yells  and  war  whoops,  to  join 
forces  and  push  the  war  forward. 

On  towards  l^aperville  the  savages  came  and  a 
terrible  slaughter  took  place. 

Naperville  was  the  settlement  nearest  Chicago, 
and  now  the  people  of  Chicago  began  to  realize  the 
danger  close  at  hand.  The  outlying  families  hurried 
in  to  the  city,  as  they  had  some  years  before,  to 
place  themselves  under  the  protection  of  old  Fort 
Dearborn. 

One  man,  writing  of  this  time,  said; 

r  The  inhabitants  came  flying  from  Fox  River, 
through  fear  of  their  dreaded  enemy.  They  came 
with  their  cattle  and  horses,  some  bareheaded,  and 
others  barefooted,  crying  ?  The  Indians!  The 
Indians ! '  Those  that  were  able  hurried  on  with  all 
speed  for  Danville. 

"  Some  found  their  way  to  Danville  in  advance  of 
the  rest,  and  told  their  fearful  stories  —  how  the 
Indians  were  killing  and  burning  all  before  them, 
while  at  this  time  it  is  presumed  that  there  was  not 


STORIES   OF    ILLINIOS.  157 

a  hostile  Indian  south  of  the  Desplaines  river.  At 
Plainfield,  however,  the  alarm  was  so  great  that  it 
was  thought  best  to  make  all  possible  efforts  for 
defense,  in  case  of  an  attack.  My  house  was  con- 
sidered the  most  secure  place.  I  had  two  long  pens 
built,  one  of  which  served  for  a  barn  and  the  other 
for  a  shed.  These  were  torn  down,  and  the  logs  used 
to  build  up  a  breastwork  around  the  house.  Ail 
the  people  living  on  Fox  river,  who  could  not  get 
farther  away,  made  my  home  a  place  of  shelter. 
There  were  one  hundred  and  twenty-five,  old  and 
young. 

>fWe  had  four  guns,  some  useless.  Ammunition 
was  scarce.  All  our  pewter  spoons,  basins,  and  plat- 
ters were  soon  moulded  by  the  women  into  bullets. 
As  a  next  best  means  of  defense,  we  got  a  good 
supply  of  axes,  hoes,  forks,  sharp  sticks  and  clubs. 
Here  we  intended  to  stay  till  some  relief  could  be 
obtained.  This  was  on  Thursday,  and  we  remained 
here  till  the  next  Sabbath,  when  the  people  of 
Chicago,  hearing  of  our  distress,  raised  a  company 


158  STORIES   OF    ILLINOIS. 

of  twenty-five  white  men  and  as  many  Indians,  who 
came  to  our  aid." 

Ottawa,  Danville,  and  Chicago  became  places  of 
refuge  for  all  frontier  settlers.  Rough  forts  were 
hastily  thrown  up  here  and  there;  and  the  frontier 
men,  having  sent  their  wives  and  children  away  in 
safety  to  the  fort,  made  brave  efforts  to  save 
their  little  homes. 

General  Scott,  with  nine  companies,  was  sent 
from  Washington;  and  glad  indeed  were  the  people 
crowded  into  the  little  fort,  when  one  morning  a 
cannon  boomed  out  across  the  waters,  a  vessel  sailed 
up  to  the  mouth  of  the  Chicago  River,  and  a  troop 
of  soldiers  landed. 

A  week  later  General  Scott  himself  arrived;  but, 
alas,  for  the  white  men,  that  dire  disease  —  cholera 
—  had  broken  out  among  his  forces,  and  men  were 
dying  hourly.  Terror  now  fell  upon  the  people. 
Black  Hawk  outside  the  Fort!  Cholera  within! 
Which  was  the  more  terrible?  The  poor  people 
hardly  knew. 


STORIES    OF    ILLINOIS.  Io9 

But  fortunately  there  were  detachments  out  upon 
the  trail  of  Black  Hawk,  and,  although  the  spirit  of 
the  savage  was  as  fierce  as  ever,  he  now  held  hack 
from  the  active  onslaught  he  longed  to  make. 

At  Stephenson,  however,  another  small  victory 
was  scored  for  the  savage  leader.  Encouraged  by 
this,  Black  Hawk  passed  on  to  Apple  River  Fort, 
where  Captain  Stone,  with  his  plucky  garrison  of 
only  twenty-five,  held  the  little  wooden  stockade  for 
a  refuge  to  the  mining  camp  that  was  clustered 
around  it. 

Stealthily  Black  Hawk  and  his  warriors  crept 
toward  the  fort  and  concealed  themselves  in  a 
thicket.  From  this  ambush  it  was  the  savage's 
intention  to  burst  upon  the  fort  when  darkness  came 
on;  and  very  successful,  no  doubt,  their  plan  might 
have  been,  had  not  one  of  the  warriors,  with  more 
zeal  than  discretion,  shot  at  a  body  of  white  men 
who  chanced  to  be  passing  the  ambush. 

One  white  man  fell  wounded  and  the  others, 
quickly  turning  their  guns  towards  the  concealed 


160  STORIES    OF    ILLINOIS. 

Indians,  retreated  slowly  towards  the  fort,  giving 
the  alarm  as  they  approached. 

Black  Hawk,  foiled  in  his  purpose  but  spurred  on 
by  desperation,  burst  upon  the  fort,  and  for  ten  long 
hours  kept  up  a  wrild  attack  upon  the  little  band.  But 
the  garrison  dealt  their  shot  wisely;  there  was  no  ex- 
citement, aim  was  steady,  and  many  a  red  man  fell  be- 
fore the  bullets  that  the  white  men  poured  upon  them. 

The  Indians,  finding  they  could  make  no  gain 
upon  the  fort,  turned  upon  the  little  village,  de- 
stroyed the  buildings,  burned  the  cornfields,  and 
then,  with  whoops  and  yells  of  defiance,  retreated. 

The  white  men  followed  Black  Hawk's  warriors 
in  quick  pursuit.  Other  skirmishes  took  place;  but 
finally  the  savages,  fleeing  as  rapidly  as  their  scanty 
means  of  transportation  would  allow,  were  overtaken 
by  General  Henry,  on  the  southern  bank  of  the 
Wisconsin.  It  was  a  quick  battle,  and  disastrous  to 
the  red  men.  Fifty  braves  were  killed  and  many 
more  wounded. 

Still  Black  Hawk  fled  before  the  pursuing  white 


STORIES   OF   ILLINOIS.  161 

men.  During  the  night  he  succeeded  in  hurry- 
ing his  pool-  fugitives  across  the  Wisconsin, 
whence  they  could  fly  towards  the  Mississippi. 
General  Atkinson  in  hot  pursuit  of  the  Sacs  soon 
arrived  at  Helena,  joined  Colonel  Dodge  and,  cross- 
ing over  to  the  north  side,  soon  struck  the  trail  of 
the  fated  Black  Hawk. 

On  the  second  day  of  August  the  advance  guard, 
under  Colonel  Dodge  and  Colonel  Taylor,  overtook 
them.  The  main  army,  however,  under  General 
Atkinson,  pressed  on,  thinking  the  main  body  of  the 
Sacs  was  in  front. 

In  this  they  were  outwitted  by  Black  Hawk,  who, 
that  he  might  escape  with  the  main  forces  while  the 
white  men  should  be  engaged  with  the  little  detach- 
ment, had  sent  them  on  to  the  mouth  of  the  Bad 
Axe  River.  General  Henry,  who  was  in  the  rear, 
suspected  this  and,  waiting  not  for  conference  or 
instructions,  dashed  forward  and  fell  upon  the 
Indians,  huddled  there  together  awaiting  further 
developments. 


162  STORIES   OF   ILLINOIS. 

With  hardly  a  moment's  warning,  General  Henry 
burst  upon  them,  a  quick  panic  followed,  the  red 
men  were  hemmed  in,  and  a  fierce,  hot  battle  took 
place. 

With  a  yell  Black  Hawk  turned  and  fled,  his  few 
remaining  warriors  with  him.  On,  on,  to  Prairie  La 
Crosse  they  fled;  and  then  Black  Hawk,  helpless, 
trapped,  knowing  that  his  cause  was  a  lost  one, 
surrendered  himself.  Fifty  of  the  warriors  were 
taken  prisoners,  a  few  escaping  to  the  Winnebagoes, 
where  they  hoped  to  find  shelter  and  protection;  but 
alas!  here  the  Sioux,  old  enemies  of  theirs,  fell  upon 
the  outcasts,  and  all  were  slain  by  their  savage  foe. 

In  September,  the  prisoners,  Black  Hawk  among 
them,  were  sent  to  St.  Louis,  and  the  Black  Hawk 
war  was  at  an  end. 

A  little  later,  Black  Hawk  was  allowed  to  return 
to  his  people;  and  on  the  Des  Moines  River  in  Iowa 
the  old  chief  spent  the  last  five  years  of  his  life  in 
peace  and  quiet.  Near  the  present  site  of  Iowa 
City  the  old  chief  lies  buried.  Over  his  dead  body 


STORIES   OF   ILLINOIS.  163 

was  raised  a  mound  —  the  last  honor  his  simple 
countrymen .  could  pay  to  Black  Hawk,  the  last 
native  defender  of  the  soil  of  the  Northwest! 

And  this  was  the  last  of  organized  Indian  trouble 
for  Chicago  or  for  Illinois.  From  this  time  on 
civilization  rapidly  increased;  the  city  grew,  com- 
mercial interests  were  enlarged,  newspapers  were 
established,  organizations  of  all  kinds  were  formed, 
until  croakers  began  to  say;  "The  city  is  growing 
too  fast.  It  will  go  down!  Up  like  a  rocket,  down 
like  a  stone !  " 

But  all  these  gloomy  predictions  have  failed. 
Chicago  has  grown  bravely  and  steadily. 


THE   WEO'EBAGO   SCARE. 

Although  Chicago  had  now  been  surveyed  and 
laid  out,  although  its  name  had  now  appeared  on  the 
maps  in  the  geographies  which  the  school  children 
of  the  United  States  were  using,  it  was  not,  even 
yet,  much  of  a  town — only  a  very  stammering 
prophecy  of  what  so  soon  it  was  to  be. 

Indian  scares,  even,  were  not  yet  at  an  end;  and 
when,  in  1827,  the  Winnebagoes  threatened  the 
village,  the  Kinzies,  the  Helms,  and. others  who  had 
lived  through  the  attack  of  1812,  had  good  reason  to 
fear  a  repetition  of  the  same  barbarous  cruelty. 
Let  us  read  the  account,  as  one  of  the  villagers  then 
told  it : 

"At  the  breaking  out  of  the  Winnebago  war, 
early  in  July,  1827,  Fort  Dearborn  was  without 
military  occupation. 

"Doctor  Alexander  Wolcott,  Indian  Agent,  had 
charge  of  the  Fort,  living  in  the  brick  building,  just 

164 


STORIES   OF   ILLINOIS.  165 

within  the  north  stockade  previously  occupied  by 
the  commanding  officers. 

f  The  old  officers'  quarters,  built  of  logs,  on  the 
west,  and  within  the  pickets,  were  occupied  by 
Russell  E.  Heacock,  and  one  other  American  family; 
others  dwelt  with  their  families  in  the  soldiers' 
quarters,  on  the  east  side  of  the  enclosure.  The 
store-house  and  guard-house  were  on  either  side  of 
the  southern  gate;  the  sutler's  store  was  east  of  the 
north  gate,  and  north  of  the  soldiers'  barracks;  the 
block-house  was  located  at  the  southwest  and  the 
bastion  at  the  northwest  corners  of  the  fort;  and  the 
magazine  of  brick  was  situated  about  half-way, 
between  the  west  end  of  the  guard  and  block-houses. 

'The  annual  payment  of  the  Pottawatomie 
Indians  occurred  in  September  of  the  year  1828.  A 
large  body  of  them  had  assembled,  according  to 
custom,  to  receive  their  annuity.  These  left  after 
the  payment  for  their  respective  villages,  except  a 
portion  of  Big  Foot's  band. 

'  The  night  following  the  payment,  there  was    a 


STORIES   OF    ILLINOIS.  167 

dance  in  the  soldiers'  barracks,  during  the  progress 
of  which  a  violent  storm  of  wind  and  rain  arose;  and 
about  midnight  these  quarters  were  struck  by  light- 
ning and  totally  consumed,  together  with  the  store- 
house and  a  portion  of  the  block-house. 

".The  sleeping  inmates  of  Mr.  Kinzies's  house,  on 
the  opposite  bank  of  the  river,  were  aroused  by  the 
cry  of  ?Fire'  from  Mrs.  Helm,  one  of  their 
number,  who  from  her  window  had  seen  the  flames. 
On  hearing  the  alarm,  I,  with  Robert  Kinzie,  late 
Paymaster  of  the  United  States'  Army,  hastily  arose 
and,  only  partially  dressed,  ran  to  the  river.  To  our 
dismay,  we  found  the  canoe,  which  was  used  for 
crossing  the  river,  filled  with  water;  it  had  been 
partially  drawn  up  on  the  beach  and  had  been  filled 
by  the  dashing  waves.  Not  being  able  to  turn  it 
over,  and  having  nothing  with  which  to  bail  it  out, 
we  lost  no  time,  but  swam  the  stream.  Entering  by 
the  north  gate  we  saw  at  a  glance  the  situation. 
-  The  barracks  and  store-house  being  wrapped  in 
flames,  we  directed  our  energies  to  the  saving  of  the 


168  STORIES   OF   ILLINOIS. 

guard-house,  the  east  end  of  which  was  on  fire. 
Mr.  Kinzie,  rolling  himself  in  a  wet  blanket,  got 
upon  the  roof.  The  men  and  women,  about  forty  in 
number,  formed  a  line  to  the  river,  and  with  buckets, 
tubs  and  every  available  utensil,  passed  the  water  to 
him;  this  was  kept  up  till  daylight  before  the  flames 
were  subdued,  Mr.  Kinzie  maintaining  his  dangerous 
position  with  great  fortitude,  though  his  hands,  face, 
and  portions  of  his  body  were  severely  burned.  His 
father,  mother  and  sister,  Mrs.  Helm,  had  mean- 
while freed  the  canoe  from  water,  and  crossing  in  it, 
fell  into  line  with  those  carrying  water. 

"  Some  of  the  Big  Foot  band  of  Indians  were 
present  at  the  fire,  but  merely  as  spectators,  and 
could  not  be  prevailed  upon  to  assist;  they  all  left 
the  next  day  for  their  homes.  The  strangeness  of 
their  behavior  was  the  subject  of  discussion  among  us. 

rf  Six  or  eight  days  after  this  event,  while  at 
breakfast  in  Mr.  Kinzie's  house,  we  heard  singing, 
faintly  at  first,  gradually  growing  louder  as  the 
singers  approached.  Mr.  Kinzie  recognized  the 


STORIES   OF    ILLINOIS.  169 

voice  as  that  of  Bob  Forsyth,  and  left  the  table  for 
the  piazza  of  the  house,  whither  we  all  followed. 
About  where  Wells  street  now  crosses  the  river,  in 
plain  sight  from  where  we  stood,  was  a  light  birch 
canoe,  manned  with  thirteen  men,  rapidly  approach- 
ing, the  men  keeping  time  with  their  paddles  to  one 
of  the  Canadian  boat  songs;  it  proved  to  be 
Governor  Cass  and  his  secretary,  Robert  Forsyth, 
and  they  landed  and  soon  joined  us. 

r?  From  them  we  first  learned  of  the  breaking  out  of 
the  Winnebago  war,  and  the  massacre  on  the  upper 
Mississippi.  Governor  Cass  was  at  Green  Bay  by 
appointment,  to  hold  a  treaty  with  the  Winnebagoes 
and  Menomonee  tribes,  who,  however,  did  not  appear 
to  meet  him  in  council.  News  of  hostilities  reach- 
ing the  Governor  there,  he  immediately  procured  a 
light  birch-bark  canoe,  purposely  made  for  speed, 
manned  it  with  twelve  men  at  the  paddles  and  a 
steersman,  and  started  up  the  river,  making  a  port- 
age into  the  Wisconsin,  then  down  that  river  and 
the  Mississippi  to  Jefferson  Barracks,  below  St.  Louis, 


170  STORIES    OF    ILLINOIS. 

"•  Here  he  persuaded  the  commanding  officer  to 
charter  a  steamer  and,  embarking  troops  on  it, 
ascended  the  Mississippi  in  search  of  the  hostile 
Indians,  and  to  give  aid  to  the  troops  at  Fort 
Snelling.  On  reaching  the  mouth  of  the  Illinois 
River,  the  Governor  (his  men  and  canoe  having 
been  brought  so  far  on  the  steamer),  ascended  that 
stream  and  the  Des  Plaines,  and  passing  through 
Mud  Lake  into  the  south  branch  of  the  Chicago 
River,  reached  Chicago.  This  trip  from  Green 
Bay  was  performed  in  about  thirteen  days,  the 
Governor's  party  sleeping  only  five  to  seven  hours, 
and  averaging  sixty  to  seventy  miles  travel  each  day. 

'f  On  the  Wisconsin  River  they  passed  Winnebago 
encampments  without  molestation.  They  did  not 
stop  to  parley,  passing  rapidly  by,  singing  their 

boat  songs;   the  Indians  were  so  taken  by  surprise 

* 
that,  before  they  recovered  from  their  astonishment, 

the  canoe  was  out  of  danger.  Governor  Cass 
remained  at  Chicago  but  a  few  hours,  coasting  Lake 
Michigan  back  to  Green  Bay.  As  soon  as  he  left, 


STORIES   OF    ILLINOIS.  171 

the  inhabitants  of  Chicago  assembled  for  consulta- 
tion. Big  Foot  was  suspected  of  acting  in  concert 
with  the  Winnebagoes,  as  he  was  known  to  be 
friendly  to  them,  and  many  of  his  band  had  inter- 
married with  that  tribe. 

ff  Shab-o-nee  was  not  here  at  the  payment,  his 
money  having  been  drawn  for  him  by  his  friend, 
Billy  Caldwell.  The  evening  before  Governor 
Case's  visit,  however,  he  was  in  Chicago,  and  then 
the  guest  of  Caldwell.  At  my  suggestion,  he  and 
Caldwell  were  engaged  to  visit  Big  Foot's  village 
(Geneva  Lake),  and  get  what  information  they- 
could  of  the  plans  of  the  Winnebagoes;  and  also 
learn  what  action  Big  Foot's  band  intended  taking. 
They  left  immediately,  and  on  Hearing  Geneva  Lake 
arranged  that  Shab-o-nee  should  enter  the  village 
alone,  Caldwell  remaining  hidden. 

"Upon  entering  the  village,  Shab-o-nee  was  made 
a  prisoner,  and  accused  of  being  a  friend  of  the 
Americans  and  a  spy.  He  affected  great  indigna- 
tion at  these  charges  and  said  to  Big  Foot:  "  I  was 


172  STORIES   OF   ILLINOIS. 

not  at  the  payment,  but  was  told  by  my  braves  that 
yon  desired  ns  to  join  the  Winnebagoes  and  make 
war  on  the  Americans.  I  think  the  AVinnebagoes 
have  been  foolish;  alone  they  cannot  succeed.  So 
I  have  come  to  council  with  yon,  hear  what  you 
have  to  say,  when  I  will  return  to  my  people  and 
report  all  yon  tell  me;  if  they  shall  th'jn  say,  we 
will  join  you,  I  will  consent/ 

w  After  talking  nearly  all  night  they  agreed 
to  let  him  go,  provided  he  was  accompanied 
by  one  of  their  own  number;  to  this  proposal 
Shab-o-nee  readily  consented,  though  it  placed 
him  in  a  dangerous  position.  His  friend  Cald- 
well  was  waiting  for  him  in  the  outskirts  of 
the  village,  and  his  presence  must  not  be  known, 
as  it  would  endanger  both  of  their  lives.  Shab-o- 
nee  was  equal  to  the  emergency.  After  leaving  in 
company  with  one  of  Big  Foot's  braves,  as  the 
place  of  CaldwelPs  concealment  was  neared,  he 
commenced  complaining  in  a  loud  voice  of  being 
suspected  and  made  a  prisoner,  and  when  quite  near, 


STORIES   OF    ILLINIOS.  173 

said,  '  We  must  have  no  one  with  us  in  going  to 
Chicago.  Should  we  meet  any  one  of  your  band 
or  any  one  else,  we  must  tell  them  to  go  away;  we 
must  go  by  ourselves,  and  get  to  Chicago  by  noon 
to-morrow.  Kinzie  will  give  us  something  to  eat, 
and  we  can  go  on  next  day.' 

rr  Caldwell  heard  and  understood  the  meaning  of 
this,  and  started  alone  on  another  route.  Strategy 
was  still  to  be  used,  as  Shab-o-nee  desired  to  report, 
so  on  nearing  Chicago,  he  said  to  his  companion, 
f  If  Kinzie  sees  you,  he  will  ask  why  your  band  did 
not  assist  in  putting  out  the  fire.  Maybe  he  has 
heard  news  of  the  war  and  is  angry  with  Big  Foot; 
let  us  camp  here,  for  our  horses  are  very  tired.' 
This  they  did,  and  after  a  little,  the  Big  Foot  brave 
suggested  that  Shab-o-nee  should  go  to  the  Fort  for 
food  and  information.  This  was  what  he  wanted  to 
do,  and  he  lost  no  time  in  reporting  the  result  of  his 
expedition,  and  procuring  food,  returned  to  his  camp. 

w  He  started  the  next  morning  with  his  companion 
for  his  own  village;  on  reaching  it  he  called  a  council 


174  CALDWKLL   HKA1II>    AND    VNDKIISTOOI.   T1IK    MKANING   OF   THIS. 


STORIES   OF   ILLINOIS.  175 

of  his  Indians,  who  were  addressed  by  Big  Foot's 
emissary,  but  they  declined  to  take  part  with  the 
Winnebagoes,  advising  Big  Foot  to  remain  neutral. 

"  On  receiving  Shab-o-nee's  report,  the  inhabit- 
ants of  Chicago  were  greatly  excited;  fearing  an 
attack,  we  assembled  for  consultation,  when  I 
suggested  sending  to  the  "Wabash  for  assistance, 
and  tendered  my  services  as  messenger.  This  was 
at  first  objected  to,  on  the  ground  that  a  majority  of 
the  men  at  the  Fort  were  in  my  employ,  and  in  case 
of  an  attack,  no  one  could  manage  them  or  enforce 
their  aid  but  myself.  It  was,  however,  decided  that 
I  should  go,  as  I  knew  the  route  and  all  the  settlers. 
An  attack  would  probably  not  be  made  until  Big 
Foot's  ambassador  had  returned  with  his  report; 
this  would  give  at  least  two  weeks'  security,  and  in 
that  time  I  could,  if  successful,  make  the  trip  and 
return. 

"•  I  started  between  four  and  five  P.  M.,  reach- 
ing my  trading  house  on  the  Iroquois  River  by 
midnight,  where  I  changed  my  horse  and  went  on. 


176  STORIES    OF    ILLINOIS. 

It  was  a  dark,  rainy  night.  On  reaching  Sugar 
Creek,  I  found  the  stream  swollen  out  of  its  banks, 
and  my  horse  refusing  to  cross,  I  was  obliged  to 
wait  till  daylight,  when  I  discovered  that  a  large 
tree  had  fallen  across  the  trail,  making  the  ford 
impassable.  I  swam  the  stream  and  went  on, 
reaching  my  friend  Mr.  Spencer's  house  at  noon, 
tired  out.  Mr.  Spencer  started  immediately  to  give 
the  alarm,  asking  for  volunteers  to  meet  at  Danville 
the  next  evening,  with  five  days'  rations. 

"  By  the  day  following,  at  the  hour  appointed,  one 
hundred  men  were  organized  into  a  company,  and 
appointing  a  Mr.  Morgan,  an  old  frontier  fighter,  as 
their  captain,  we  immediately  started  for  Chicago, 
camping  that  night  on  the  north  fork  of  the  Vermil- 
lion  River.  It  rained  continually,  the  trail  was  very 
muddy,  and  we  were  obliged  to  swim  most  of  the 
streams  and  many  of  the  large  sloughs,  but  we  still 
pushed  on,  reaching  Fort  Dearborn  the  seventh  day 
after  my  departure,  to  the  great  joy  of  the  waiting 
people. 


STORIES   OF   ILLINOIS.  177 

'  We  reached  Chicago  about  four  o'clock  in  the 
evening  of  the  fourth  day,  in  the  midst  of  one  of  the 
most  severe  rainstorms  I  ever  experienced,  accom- 
panied by  thunder  and  vicious  lightening.  The  rain 
we  did  not  mind;  we  were  without  tents  and  were 
used  to  wetting/  The  water  we  took  within  us  hurt 
ns  more  than  that  which  fell  upon  us,  as  drinking  it 
made  many  of  us  sick. 

f  The  people  of  Chicago  were  very  glad  to  see  us. 
They  were  expecting  an  attack  every  hour  since 
Colonel  Hubbard  had  left  them,  and  as  we 
approached  they  did  not  know  whether  we  were 
enemies  or  friends,  and  when  they  learned  that  we 
were  friends  they  gave  us  a  shout  of  welcome. 

"  We  kept  guard  day  and  night  for  some  eight  or 
ten  days,  when  a  runner  came  —  I  think  from  Green 
Bay  —  bringing  word  that  General  Cass  had  con- 
cluded a  treaty  with  the  Winnebagoes  and  that  we 
might  now  disband  and  go  home." 

And  thus,  with  little  real  suffering,  did  the  Win- 
nebago  scare  of  1827  come  to  its  end. 


THE   LAST   OF   THE   POTTAWATOMIES. 

When  the  white  men  came  here,  they  found  the 
country  round  about  Chicago  occupied,  as  we  know, 
by  the  Pottawatomies.  These  were  their  hunting 
grounds;  and  here  their  tents  were  pitched,  their 
wigwams  and  villages  built. 

They  were  an  intelligent  tribe,  even  from  the 
beginning,  and  were  possessed  of  no  little  informa- 
tion, as  the  result  of  their  quick  observation  and 
ready  conclusions  regarding  what  they  saw. 

The  white  men  had  little  difficulty  in  making 
friends  with  them;  and  from  the  beginning  the  white 
men  and  the  red  men  hunted  and  fished,  ate  and 
drank  together  around  their  hospitable  camp  fires. 

The  Illinois  Indians,  who  dwelt  up  and  down 
this  Northwest  Territory  —  from  the  Wabash  to 
the  Mississippi,  and  from  the  Ohio  to  the  Great 
Lakes  —  had  their  central  village  in  northern 
Illinois  where  Utica  now  is. 

178 


STORIES   OF   ILLINOIS.  179 

Then,  as  now,  it  was  a  beautiful  location,  nestled 
in  the  valley,  and  these  Indians  were  not  lacking  in 
appreciation  of  its  beauty  when  they  chose  it  for 
their  home. 

It  was  not  long-  after  the  discovery  of  this  section 
by  La  Salle,  that  the  Iroquois  burst  upon  these 
peace-abiding  Illinois,  laid  waste  their  city,  and 
scattered  them  up  and  down  the  plain. 

Until  this  time  they  too  had  been  a  powerful 
tribe,  and  had  their  share  in  the  glories  of  Indian 
warfare.  But  from  this  blow  they  never  recovered. 
For  three  generations  they  struggled  on,  though 
with  little  success,  against  foe  after  foe. 

Close  by  their  city,  a  part  of  what  was  once  the 
bank  of  the  great  Illinois  River  in  those  days  of  long 
ago,  stands  a  great  water-worn  rock. 

This  rock  the  Illinois  Indians  often  looked  upon 
as  their  natural  fortress,  should  ever  attack  come  to 
them;  and,  indeed,  had  it  been  planned  and  built  for 
a  fortress,  it  could  not  have  been  made  more  secure 
from  attack,  so  high  and  steep  is  its  craggy  front. 


180  STORIES    OF    ILLINOIS. 

Now,  the  Pottawatouaies  and  the  Ottawas  were 
most  friendly.  Indeed,  Pontiac,  the  old  Ottawa 
chief,  the  idol  of  his  -tribe,  was  obeyed  and 
reverenced  hardly  less  by  the  Pottawatomies  than 
by  his  own  people. 

It  was  but  natural,  then,  when  this  old  chief  fell, 
slain,  as  the  Pottawatomies  believed,  by  the  Illinois, 
that  they  should  join  forces  with  the  Ottawas  and 
swear  eternal  enmity  to  the  offending  tribe. 

Accordingly,  war  was  waged  upon  the  Illinois, 
already  broken  in  spirit;  and  at  last  so  few  of  them 
remained  that  they  fled  to  Starved  Rock,  so  long 
looked  upon  as  their  natural  fortress.  There, 
besieged  by  their  enemy,  unable  to  obtain  food  or 
water — though  the  river  ran  at  their  feet  —  they 
starved  on  until,  in  desperation,  knowing  that  death 
was  theirs  if  they  remained  upon  the  rock  no  less 
than  if  they  left  it,  they  rushed  down  into  the 
valley  to  fight  for  their  lives. 

'Very  softly,  and  in  the  dead  of  night,  they  crept 
down  the  stone  stairway,  only  to  meet  there  at  the 


STOKIKS    OF    ILLINOIS.  181 

foot  a  great  army  of  Pottawatomies    and    Ottawas 
waiting  and  ready  for  the  slaughter. 

A  terrible  scene  followed.  War  whoops  filled  the 
air;  and  with  the  fury  of  wild  beasts  the  Poltawato- 
inies  and  Ottawas  fell  upon  the  little  band  of  hall' 
starved  Illinois.  The  women  and  children  —  mere 
skeletons,  so  reduced  were  they  by  starvation  —  fell 
easy  victims  to  the  foe,  who  slew  them  with  no  less 
satisfaction  than  they  did  the  warriors  of  the 
unfortunate  tribe. 

The  conflict  lasted  but  a  short  time;  for  the  weak, 
starved  Illinois  had  little  courage  or  endurance  to 
do  battle,  and  in  an  hour  the  ground  was  covered 
with  the  dead  bodies  of  the  Illinois. 

Eleven  only  escaped.  These  eleven,  strengthened 
by  desperation,  broke  through  the  ranks  of  the 
enemy,  and  in  the  darkness  and  confusion,  seized 
some  canoes  that  were  anchored  there  and  made 
their  way  to  St.  Louis. 

Here  they  were  protected  by  the  people  in  the 
fort,  given  food  and  allowed  to  rest,  until  at  last, 


182 


"STARVED  ROCK,1 


STORIES   OF   ILLINOIS.  183 

broken  in  spirit,  not  even  longer  claiming1  the  name 
Illinois,  they  crept  away  to  friendly  tribes  farther 
south,  whoever  would  hear  their  piteous  tale  and 
accept  them  into  their  tribe. 

So  perished  the  Illinois  at  the  hands  of  the  Potta- 
watornies. 

It  was  this  extermination  of  the  Illinois  that 
secured  to  the  Pottawatomies  the  country  up  and 
down  this  section. 

Chicago  had  always  been  a  favorite  hunting 
ground  for  the  Pottawatomies.  Around  it  they 
liked  to  set  up  their  wigwams;  here  they  were 
accustomed  to  hold  their  great  councils;  and  here  it 
was  that  they  finally  made  their  last  treaty  with  our 
government. 

In  this  treaty  they  agreed  to  move  to  a  certain 
locality  west  of  the  Missouri ;  and  gradually  they 
went  away,  leaving  only  a  few  of  their  number,  who 
still  lingered  about  the  growing  city,  trading  a  little, 
working  a  little,  but  in  no  way  molesting  the 
inhabitants. 


184  STORIES   OF   ILLINOIS. 

In  1835,  the  Pottawatomies  assembled  for  the  last 
time  in  Chicago  to  receive  their  annuity  from  the 
government. 

Most  amazed  did  they  seem  to  find  houses  and 
business  blocks  already  erected  upon  the  very  places 
where,  in  their  day,  the  tall,  rank  grass  had  grown. 

To  some  of  them  the  realization  seemed  to  come 
that  their  country  was  gone,  that  they  were 
exiles,  and  that  a  greater  people  had  indeed  taken 
possession  of  their  lands. 

There  were  five  thousand  Pottawatomies  assem- 
bled in  the  city  on  this  day  in  1835;  and  as  they 
realized  that  never  again  would  they  come  together 
on  their  native  soil,  the  old  spirit  of  savagery  seemed 
to  leap  up  in  them  and  a  desire  once  more  to 
express  themselves  in  old  time  Avar  dance  took 
possession  of  them. 

Accordingly,  without  warning  to  the  white  men, 
'they  assembled  at  the  Council  House,  near  the 
present  Lake  House. 

They  wore  only  a  strip  of  cloth  around  their  loins, 


STORIES   OF    ILLINOIS.  185 

and  they  had  painted  their  bodies  in  a  great  variety 
of  most  brilliant  colors. 

On  their  faces,  certainly,  they  had  allowed  their 
most  savage  artistic  instincts  full  play;  for  never 
were  faces  made  more  hideous! 

Their  long,  coarse,  black  hair  they  had  gathered 
in  old  time  scalp  locks,  and  among  the  hair  were 
feathers  and  plumes,  strung  together  so  that 
in  some  cases  they  hung  down  behind  and  even 
trailed. 

Kach  Indian  was  armed  with  tomahawk  and  war 
club,  and  the  leaders  beat  upon  hollow  pans,  making 
a  noise  deafening  and  horrible. 

Up  and  down  the  north  side  of  the  river  they 
marched,  stopping  at  each  house  to  whoop  and  yell 
and  flourish  their  tomahawks. 

Over  the  old  bridge  they  marched,  on  across  the 
South  Branch,  up  to  the  Sauganash  Hotel. 

It  was  a  hot  close  morning  in  August;  the  per- 
spiration poured  down  their  faces,  their  tongues 
rolled  out,  and  their  eyes  were  wild  and  bloodshot. 


1«6  STORIES   OF   ILLINOIS. 

Their  faces  were  fierce  and  cruel  and  their  strong- 
muscles  were  drawn  up  in  great  knots  so  strained 
and  tense  were  they. 

They  danced  and  leaped  at  every  step,  and 
brandished  their  Avar  clubs  with  constant  whoops 
and  yells. 

Surrounding  the  hotel,  they  leered  in  at  the 
windows  and  shook  their  tomahawks  at  the  women, 
yelling  and  howling  and  threatening. 

More  than  one  brave  heart  beat  high;  for  even 
the  bravest  of  the  men  knew  that  at  any  moment  the 
savages,  excited  and  wrought  up  as  they  were, 
might  turn  this  sham  war  dance  into  actual  warfare1, 
lose  control  of  themselves  and  burst  in  upon  the 
people,  helpless  as  they  were  before  them. 

Fortunately  this  did  not  happen,  and  the  Indians 
marched  on  to  Fort  Dearborn,  where,  before  the 
assembled  officers,  they  finished  their  exhibition, 
with  louder  yells,  higher  leaps  and  greater 
contortions. 

Then,    at    the    word    of    command,    they    ceased, 


STORIES   OF    ILLINOIS.  187 

wiped  their  perspiring  faces,  and  dispersed  to  their 
lodging  places,  content  now  to  leave  their  old  hunt- 
ing grounds  and  go  back  to  their  home  beyond  the 
Missouri. 

Xo  less  glad  were  the  people  of  Chicago  to  see 
them  go;  for,  tragic  though  their  exile  was,  the 
white  man  knew  full  well  that  their  sham  war  dance 
might  have  proved  a  real  one,  that  many  a  white 
village  had  witnessed  it  as  real,  and  that  for  the 
safety  and  peace  of  mind  of  the  growing  city  it  was 
best  that  the  Pottawatomies  appear  never  again 
within  its  limits. 


THE  GREAT   FIEE. 

41  O  city  by  the  inland  sea, 

Chicago, 
The  whole  world's  heart  in  sympathy, 

Chicago, 

Throbbed  for  thee  in  thy  distress,  — 
But  thon'rt  risen  now  to  bl  ss 
All  who  call  on  thce. 
Chicago." 

It  had  been  a  most  unusually  dry  summer.  Since 
July  there  had  been  only  two  and  one-fourth  inches 
of  rainfall  in  the  prairie  section  of  the  country — less 
than  one-fourth  the  average  amount. 

It  was  on  October  7th,  1871,  that  the  first  fire  in 
Chicago  broke  out,  and  the  four  blocks  included  by 
Adams,  Clinton,  ATan  Buren  Streets  and  the  South 
Branch,  were  destroyed. 

This  of  itself  was  no  small  fire.  Dry  as  the  build- 
ings were,  and  with  a  south  wind  blowing,  it  was 
only  by  the  most  energetic  labor  that  even  this  fire 
was  brought  under  control  and  the  city  saved. 

But  hardly  had  the   firemen  recovered    from   the 

1S8 


STORIES    OF    ILLINOIS.  189 

exhaustion  of  this  night's  work,  when  on  Sunday 
evening-  out  ran^  another- alarm  of  fire  —  this  time 
from  l)e  Koven  Street  locality. 

The  southwest  wind  was  now  blowing  a  gale. 
The  watchmen  on  the  Court  House  misjudged  the 
locality,  and  the  nearest  engine  reached  the  scene 
only  to  find  the  fire  already  beyond  control. 

The  wind  rose  higher  and  higher;  the  dry  roofs 
snapped  and  crackled.  Great  tongues  of  fire  were 
whirled  high  in  the  air;  pieces  of  burning  timber 
were  blown  hundreds  of  feet  to  the  northeast, 
dropping  here  and  there  and  everywhere  upon  the 
dry  roofs  of  buildings.  The  fire  was  everywhere! 
The  fifteen  engines  were  but  toys,  in  their  power  to 
stav  the  flames! 

Already  the  old  Judge  Caton  place  —  one  of 
Chicago's  earliest  landmarks  —  was  in  flames.  The 
beautiful  forest  around  about  it  hissed  and  crackled 
like  fire-works;  and  in  a  lew  moments,  little  else 
than  the  twelve  old  chimneys  were  left  to  mark  the 
ruin  of  the  grand  old  mansion  house. 


190  STORIES   OF   ILLINOIS. 

On,  on  the  fire  rushed,  towards  the  district 
burned  the  night  before.  ff~  But  it  must  stop  then !  " 
the  people  said;  and  in  their  despair,  they  even 
watched,  with  relief,  the  destruction  of  the  blocks  up 
to  that  charred  and  empty  square. 

Certainly  this  seemed  probable;  and  under  any 
ordinary  conditions  it  must  have  been  so.  But  the 
city  seemed  fated. 

At  half  past  twelve,  with  a  howl,  as  if  exulting  in 
the  dire  destruction,  the  wind  swept  up  with  a  fear- 
ful gust,  siezed  a  brand  of  fire,  hurled  it  high  in  the 
air,  and  sent  it  with  the  speed  of  a  rocket  across  the 
river,  down  upon  the  roof  of  a  miserable  little 
tenement  house  built  of  wood. 

One  second,  and  the  roof  was  in  a  blaze;  five 
minutes,  and  the  whole  wooden  section  was  one 
sheet  of  flames. 

On  the  roof  of  the  Court  House  the  watchmen 
fought  the  falling  embers,  and  rang  the  great  bell. 
At  last  the  wooden  cupola  caught,,  and  the  watch- 
men were  driven  below.  The  bell  rang  on  and  on, 


STORIES    OF    ILLINIOS.  191 

until  it  fell  with  a  great  crash  into  the  meltrng 
caldron  of  flames  below. 

In  the  jail  basement,  the  prisoners  shrieked  and 
howled  and  shook  their  iron  doors. 

"Let  them  go!"  came  the  command  from  Captain 
Hickey;  and  out  they  rushed,  blinded  and  half 
suffocated,  into  the  street  below — the  only  beings 
in  the  whole  doomed  city  to  whom  the  fire  was  not  a 
sorrow  and  a  terror! 

Here  and  there,  powder  was  used  and  buildings 
blown  np,  that  great  gaps  might  be  made,  which, 
it  was  hoped,  might  stop  the  onward  rush  of  fire. 
But  even  this  was  of  little  avail;  for  hardly  had  the 
first  great  black  chasm  been  made,  where  the 
business  palace  of  the  Merchants'  Insurance  Com- 
pany stood,  when  the  flames,  with  superhuman 
power,  leaped  the  chasm  and  fell  with  redoubled 
fury  upon  the  roof  beyond. 

And  now  the  fire  crossed  the  main  river!  It  was 
half  past  two,  when  a  car-load  of  keros.ene,  standing 
on  the  N.  "W.  K.  K.,  caught;  and  from  that  the  fire 


192  STORIES   OF    ILLINOIS. 

fiend  rushed  straight  on  towards  the  dwelling  houses 
of  that  section  of  the  city. 

An  hour  later,  and  the  City  Water  Works  were 
attacked.  This  building  was  of  stone  and  the  roof 
slated  over.  But  the  fire  seemed  no  respector  of 
material.  The  flames  fell  upon  this  slated  roof, 
which  ignited  and  sent  a  blaze  down  in  upon  the 
ceilings  below. 

Most  courageously  the  engineer  and  his  force 
held  theit*  post  and  fought  the  flames,  till  the  very 
roof  fell  in,  when  flight  was  all  that  was  left  to  them. 

N~ow,  with  the  pumping'  engines  themselves 
destroyed,  the  fire  had  no  obstruction.  On,  on  it 
sped,  even  up  to  the  very  limits  of  Lincoln  Park; 
nor  did  it  stop  until  the  last  house  upon  the  limit 
was  reached. 

For  twenty-five  long  hours  had  the  fire  raged, 
and  over  a  distance  of  four  miles  it  swept  in  dire 
destruction.  Thousands  of  people  were  driven  into 
the  streets,  homeless  and  penniless,  and  hundreds  lay 
dead  beneath  the  ruins  of  fallen  buildings.  ]S"o 


STORIES   OF   ILLINOIS.  103 

whole  volume  could  tell  the  story  of  this  fire,  the 
misery  of  the  people,  the  destruction  of  the  city. 

What  now  would  be  the  future  of  this  ruined 
city?  Would  it,  could  it  recover?  That  was  the 
question  asked  by  the  people  of  Chicago  and  of  all 
other  cities  of  the  country. 

On  the  morning  after  the  fire  was  over,  one  man 
was  seen  looking  at  the  ruins  of  his  business  block, 
and  turning  over  the  bricks  here  and  there. 

?  What  are  you  doing?"  a  neighbor  asked. 

"  Seeing  how  soon  these  bricks  will  be  cool 
enough  to  build  again !  "  was  the  laconic  answer. 

And  that  answer  seemed  the  prophecy  of  the 
future. 

"Ruined!"  exclaimed  the  editor  of  the  Tribune; 
"Never!  Our  city  will  boast  a  population  of  one 
million  in  twenty  years;"  and  his  prophecy  was 
correct. 

Such  has  been,  and  such  is,  the  spirit  of  the 
Chicago  people-! 


THE   WORLD'S  FAIR   YEAR. 

"  ()  city  by  the  inland  sea, 

Chicago, 
Whose  institutions  grand  and  free, 

Chicago, 

Give  instruction  and  delight. 
Making  darkened  pathways  bright, 
For  Humanity. 
Chicago." 

"A  burden  of  honor!"  Yes,  and  how  grandly 
our  brave  city  bore  the  burden! 

When  the  idea  of  celebrating  the  four  hundreth 
anniversary  of  the  coining  of  Columbus  sprang  into 
the  minds  of  the  people,  the  next  question  was. 
Where  should  we  hold  the  celebration  ?  At  the 


196  STORIES   OF   ILLINOIS. 

West  Indies,  where  first  the  caravels  landed? 
Columbus'  tomb  was  there;  that  made  it  fitting. 
In  Boston,  because  it  was  historic?  In  New 
York,  because  it  was  New  York?  In  Philadelphia, 
because  the  Centennial  was  held  there? 

No  —  none  of  these!  But  in  our  own  Chicago! 
Because  Chicago  was  large  and  central  —  the  City 
of  the  Future;  and  above  all,  because  the  people 
of  Chicago  dared. 

And  it  was,  indeed,  no  little  undertaking,  no  little 
risk  and  burden.  But  Chicago  knew  its  resources 
and  its  citizens  —  knew  its  brave  men  and  women  — 
their  intelligence,  their  energy,  their  patriotism  and 
their  unfailing  capacity  for  successful  enterprise. 

And  so  it  came  about  that  it  was  Chicago  who 
entertained  the  guests  for  the  World's  Fair  —  a  fail- 
greater  than  which  no  country  of  the  world  has  ever 
seen.  But  it  will  be  most  superfluous  to  talk 
T  World's  Fair  "  to  Illinois  boys  and  girls !  It  is  all 
too  fresh  in  our  minds;  and  we  know,  as  no  one  can 
tell  us,  how  grand  and  beautiful  it  was. 


STORIES   OF   ILLINOIS.  19? 

Indeed,  Illinois  boys  and  girls  have  a  right  to  be 
proud  of  that  part  of  the  exhibition  which  they 
themselves  provided  —  their  educational  exhibit.  If 
it  were  not  already  conceded  by  the  thousands  of 
educational  men  and  women  who  were  there,  that  no 
exhibit  from  any  other  state  excelled  our  own,  we 
should  not  claim  it  ourselves.  But  they  said  it  — 
they  said  it  at  the  time,  and  they  say  it  still;  and  so 
they  will  not  count  it  ill  taste  in  us  if  we  trust  their 
judgment  and  take  deserved  comfort  to  ourselves, 
that  we  contributed  acceptably  in  this,  as  in  other 
lines,  to  the  World's  Exposition  of  1893. 

The  first  definite  movement  towards  the  celebra- 
tion of  the  discovery  of  America  was  the  forming 
of  a  corporation  in  1889  under  the  laws  of  Illinois. 

The  next,  was  the  passing  of  an  act  in  Congress, 
in  the  preamble  of  which  we  find  these  words : 

>f  Be  it  enacted  by  the  Senate  and  the  House  of 
Representatives  of  the  United  States  of  America  in 
Congress  assembled;  that  an  exhibition  of  arts, 
industries,  manufactures,  and  products  of  the  soil, 


STORIES   OF   ILLINOIS.  199 

mine,  and  sea,  shall  be  inaugurated  in  the  year  1892, 
in  the  city  of  Chicago  in  the  state  of  Illinois,  as 
hereafter  provided." 

But  the  corporation  must  first  have  ready 
$5,000,000,  to  begin  the  work,  and  5,000,000  more 
to  bring  forward  on  demand  during  the  exposition. 
This  did  not  appall  the  Illinois  spirit.  The  five 
million  was  raised  by  popular  subscription,  all  gladly 
contributing,  from  the  millionaire  to  the  day  laborer, 
according  to  their  means. 

And  it  was  because  this  first  sum  was  so  gener- 
ously contributed,  that  the  second  five  million  was 
raised  by  issue  of  city  bonds. 

So  the  preliminary  work  went  on.  A  greater 
undertaking  our  country  never  saw;  but  that  it  was 
wisely  and  successfully  carried  forward,  we  had  our 
proof  when  the  Fair  was  thrown  open  to  the  public. 

It  was  on  the  12th  of  October,  1892  —  the 
anniversary  of  the  landing  of  Columbus  —  that  the 
dedication  took  place.  And  what  a  day  that  was, 
not  only  in  Chicago,  but  throughout  the  country! 


STORIES   OF   ILLINOIS.  201 

Columbus  day!  Celebrated  by  the  school  boys 
and  girls  in  every  city  and  town  and  borough! 
MiisiQ,  processions  and  flags!  And  in  the  evening, 
patriotic  songs,  fireworks,  speeches  and  cheers  for 
the  land  of  Columbus!  We  remember  it  still. 
And  we  are  proud  to-day,  as  we  then  were,  that  we 
are  Americans,  ready  now  and  forever  to  hail 
Columbia  —  our  owrn,  our  native  land. 

And  upon  our  Chicago,  the  burden  of  all  this  fell 
It  is  over  now;  and  has  passed  into  the  history  of 
our  city.  It  was  great;  it  was  established  on  a 
mighty  scale;  it  was  carried  on  with  energy  and 
enthusiasm,  and  it  w^as  a  success.  Each  state  and 
territory  in  the  Union  helped,  and  had  its  represent- 
atives in  delegates  and  officers.  All  worked  in 
harmony.  Great  dreams  of  achievement  were  ful- 
filled. And  in  all  this  Chicago  failed  not  in  any 
respect  to  support  and  carry  on,  with  glory  to  her- 
self and  comfort  to  her  guests,  her  f'  great  burden  of 
honor,"  —  The  Columbian  Exposition. 

And  now,  —  Chicago's  future ! 


202  STORIES   Of   ILLINOIS, 

What  shall  it  be?     Who  shall  tell? 

But  of  one  thing  we  may  be  sure  —  the  same 
brave  spirit  of  enthusiasm  that  has  pervaded  the 
hearts  of  the  present  and  past  generations,  will  per- 
vade the  hearts  of  those  yet  to  come.  Love  for  the 
city  by  its  citizens  is,  to  us  and  to  it,  a  tower  of 
strength.  We  are  proud  of  our  city;  and  we  are 
proud  that  we  are  proud. 

No  city  on  earth  has  a  record  like  it.  Fifty  years 
ago  a  prairie  —  to-day  a  city  of  more  than  a  million 
inhabitants,  representing  every  interest  —  commer- 
cial, industrial,  educational  and  artistic  —  known  to 
any  section  in  our  broad  land.  Of  our  city  in  its 
earlier  days,  one  old  man,  still  hearty  and  strong, 
says  with  glowing  pride; 

"  I  was  born  in  1822  in  a  little  house  at  the  foot 
of  Washington  Street,  four  blocks  from  old  Fort 
Dearborn.  The  house  was  one  that  had  been  used 
as  a  trading  post.  Afterward,  about  1834,  when  the 
pier  was  built  at  the  mouth  of  the  river,  the  course 
of  the  river  was  changed,  and  the  foundations  of  the 


STORIES   OF  ILLINOIS.  203 

old  house  were  so  undermined  that  it  had  to  be 
torn  down. 

rc  I  can   recollect    the    time  when    I    could   g-o  to 

c? 

the  fort  and  count  only  twenty-five  buildings  out- 
side the  garrison,  and  these  were  mostly  log  houses. 

f  This  part  of  the  city  was  then  a  forest.  The 
trees  were  as  thick  as  they  could  be  down  to 
Chicago  Avenue.  In  this  very  place  we  could  sit 
and  shoot  deer;  and  there  were  wood  wolves,  which 
were  larger  and  darker  than  the  ordinary  prairie 
wolves. 

"Prairie  wolves,  by  the  way,  were  exceedingly 
numerous  all  around  Harrison  and  Vali  Buren 
Streets.  From  Randolph  Street,  running  south, 
there  was  a  strip  of  forest  to  Sixteenth  Street,  and 
between  Fifth  Avenue  and  the  lake.  This  was 
heavy  timber,  and  once  in  a  while  a  bear  or  a  lynx 
would  get  in  there." 

And  another — no  less  proud  of  the  wonderful 
change  in  his  own  life-time,  says: 

pfl  was  born  in  one    of  the    old    Fort  Dearborn 


204  STORIES   01s   ILLINOIS. 

houses,  and  I  have  played  over  the  ground  time  and 
time  again  as  a  boy. 

?  There  is  one  point  in  connection  with  old  Fort 
Dearborn  that  I  should  like  to  have  corrected,  and 
that  is  the  statement  that  it  was  surrounded  by  a 
solid  plank  fence.  Instead  of  this  it  was  surrounded 
by  five  rows  of  sharp  pickets,  each  about  fifteen  feet 

high." 

Other  cities  have  gone  through  the  same  process 
of  change  and  growth,  to  be  sure;  but  not  in  half  a 
century.  And  it  is  because  of  this  proud  past  that 
we  hope  so  much  for  the  future.  Great  schemes  and 
great  interests  even  now  are  pending;  and  in  them 
Chicago  will  not  fail.  Pride  of  citizenship  will  pre- 
serve and  push  forward  our  city  in  the  years  to  come, 
even  as  it  has  done  in  the  few  short  years  that  have 
passed;  and  we  shall  sing  as  proudly  then  as  now: 

^  O,  city  by  the  inland  sea, 
Columbia  has  chosen  thee 
To  proudly  say,  <  I  Will,' 
And  all  prophecy  fulfill, 
Mighty  city  by  the  inland  sea." 


HISTORY   AND   BIOGRAPHY. 


H  E.  MACOMBER. 


Stories  of 

American 

Pioneers. 

,llus.     Price,  Bds.,  30  cts. 
Cloth,  40  cts. 

Daniel  Boone  —  Lewis 
and  Clark — Fremont 
Kit  Carson, 


(jrti  Grade.) 

Stories  of 

Great  Inventors. 

Illus.     Boards,  30  cents; 
Cloth,  40  cents. 

Fulton  —  Cooper  — 
Whitney  —  Morse  — 
Edison,  with  graphic 
stories  of  their  wonderful 
discoveries  and  inventions. 


HISTORY. 

(3rd  Grade.} 


Stories  of  the  Red  Children. 

By  DOROTHY  BROOKS.    Large  type.     Illus. 
Price,  Boards,  30  cents;   Cloth,  40  cents. 

It  is  both  natural  and  fitting  that  the  boys  and  girls  of 
America  should  be  interested  and  familiar  with  the  legends 
that  have  woven  so  much  of  poetry  and  romance  about  the 
life  of  the  Red  men.  And  \\hen  these  fanciful  talcs  are 
presented  as  a  part  of  the  life-his'ory  of  the  little  Red  chil- 
dren they  touch  tl  e  kindred  love  of  the  ma  velous  in  the 
civilized  children  of  to-day  with  a  pecu'iar  closeness.  All 
barriers  of  race  and  centuries  of  time  fa  e  away  and  the  red 
and  white  children  clasp  hands  in  joy  and  delight  in  their 
mutual  love  of  Nature's  wonder-tales.  The  author's  well- 
known  charm  in  story  telling  has  never  shown  bett<  r  than 
in  this  little  book.  The  style  is  smooth,  flowing  and  beauti- 
ful. Wind,  stars,  rain,  snow,  rainbows  and  the  \\hole  phe- 
nome1  a  of  nature  are  woven  into  charnrng  stories  which 
will  feed  the  imagination  without  injuring  the  children. 
The  book  is  illustrated  by  twenty-three  striking  pictures 
vivid  with  Indian  life  and  activities. 


HISTORY    AND    PATRIOTISM. 


American  History  Stories. 

By  MARA  L.  PRATT,  Author  of  Young  Folk's  Library  of 
American  History,  etc.     Vols.  I.,  II.,  III.,  IV. 

Price,  Boards,  36  cents  each;   Cloth,  50  cents. 

USED    IN  THE    SCHOOLS   OF    NEW    YORK,    BOSTON,     BROOKLYN,    P1TTSBURG, 
MINNEAPOLIS,  ST.  PAUL,  MILWAUKEE,  NEW    HAVEN,  HARTFORD,    ETC. 

(For  ^rd,  ^.th  and  ^th  Years.} 


Your  American  History  Stories  are,  in  my  opinion  among 
the  most  valuable  aids  to  the  work  of  introducing  History  in 
the  lower  grades.  We  are  using  a  quantity  of  them  in  Grades 
III.  and  IV.  Reading  and  language  are  best  developed  in 
connection  with  what  is  intensely  interesting,  and  I  predict  a 
*arge  demand  for  books  of  this  sort. 

S.  T.  BUTTON,  Supt.  of  Schools,  Brookline,  Mass. 


